dark horse

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Even though the Dodgers initially had doubts about their chances of landing Edwin Díaz, circumstances changed, the reliever’s market evolved, and they went from dark horse to front-runner.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 13, 2025

Xiaomi in particular was a "dark horse", she said, its debut AI glasses the third best-selling of their kind for the first half of 2025 despite only being on sale for about a week.

From Barron's • Dec. 3, 2025

After more than a century of false starts, the dark horse of the renewable-energy industry seems finally poised to make a significant dent in America’s insatiable appetite for new sources of power.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 23, 2025

By some accounts, he was a dark horse in a conclave race which many predicted would deliver unto us a Pope Pizzaballa.

From Salon • May 10, 2025

He found the dark horse in the night and stood caressing the warm skin, thick bristly mane, feeding sugar, talking.

From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara