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run-on sentence
noun
: a sentence containing two or more clauses not connected by the correct conjunction or punctuation
Examples of run-on sentence in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Apparently my run-on sentence post last week appeared even more ranty than usual.
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Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 18 June 2020
In between, students laid out pages, rejiggered run-on sentences and tweaked photo captions.
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Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, 3 Apr. 2020
The narrator lives in a country whose mythic propositions hang in the same limbo as her run-on sentence.
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Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2019
Lucy Ellmann’s eighth novel — 1,000 pages long and primarily composed of run-on sentences — is an experimental narrative that probes the anxieties of life in contemporary America.
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Annabel Gutterman, Time, 30 Aug. 2019
Great thickets of verbiage tumble forth as Virgil Abloh thinks out loud in long, run-on sentences—often doubling back to critique himself or to add further thoughts or rephrase.
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Jonathan Van Meter, Vogue, 14 May 2019
For those of us who make a habit of investing our allegiance in underdogs, then, the World Cup often reads like an interminable, run-on sentence of tragedy, loosely punctuated with eruptions of joy.
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Kanishk Tharoor, The Atlantic, 14 July 2018
Four paragraphs of run-on sentences are usually a clue.
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The Cut, 17 June 2018
Each room has its own character, so the house isn't one continuous run-on sentence.
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Lisa Cregan, House Beautiful, 30 Mar. 2015
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'run-on sentence.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1914, in the meaning defined above
Articles Related to run-on sentence
Dictionary Entries Near run-on sentence
Cite this Entry
“Run-on sentence.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/run-on%20sentence. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
Kids Definition
run-on sentence
noun
: a sentence formed from two or more sentences improperly joined (as "I didn't see the red light, officer, I was looking the other way")
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