ad-lib
Example Sentences
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Williams was elusive and made some great ad-lib plays down the stretch, and they dominated possession, but allowing big plays cost them dearly.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2025
For years, he recalled in his Television Academy Foundation interview, he’d tear out advertisements from Life magazine and, behind a closed bedroom door, he’d ad-lib commercials as he pretended to be on the radio.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2025
I would want to do everything real, and Jonathan would always encourage me to ad-lib and improvise.
From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2025
The speech isn’t something he can ad-lib or pull from memory, hence the notes, and he’d never use a PowerPoint presentation.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 20, 2024
Kids wouldn’t move to the right places during rehearsals, or would ad-lib wisecracks, which Mrs. Finley didn’t think at all funny.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
Carl Reiner similarly declared: “I saw what I thought was the funniest ad-libbed thing I had ever seen. It was a riot, and we never stopped laughing.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
Geller, last year’s valedictorian, ad-libbed “millionaires suck” during his commencement address.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
“I was too young to be in the Senate,” he then ad-libbed in a joke, “and too old to be the president.”
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2024
But not just any communication: an informal, minute-by-minute written down substitution for what might otherwise have been said out loud ad-libbed remarks, lost to the ether moments after their utterance.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2023
“See, because his last name is Gruyère, which is a kind of cheese,” Owen ad-libbed.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
His ad-libbing in the post-kinetic stage isn’t his finest hour.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
The Fijians have always been everyone’s favorite longshots at the Rugby World Cup due to the way they play, an inventive, ad-libbing attack-from-anywhere kind of ethos.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 18, 2023
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could teach the puppeteers to do the magic ad-libbing that my father never thought was teachable?’” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2023
He then went further, ad-libbing to suggest that no other world leader would want to change places with Mr. Xi, given the scope of his recent problems.
From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2023
They talk about their parts, sometimes even ad-libbing lines that are not in the script.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
Vocabulary lists containing ad-lib
Reading: Literature - Drama - Introductory
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Theater - Introductory
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Reading: Literature - Drama - Middle School
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