kingmaker

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.

But with a nudge from Rafsanjani, the kingmaker, he was picked by the Assembly of Experts as the new leader.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 1, 2026

Rupert Murdoch's 70-year career saw him as "both an interventionist editor-in-chief figure and a political kingmaker", according to Paddy Manning, an investigative journalist who wrote The Successor: The High-Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch.

From BBC • Dec. 23, 2025

By the late 2000s, the media had fully embraced Kennedy’s role as the court’s kingmaker.

From Slate • Oct. 21, 2025

Guralnick’s new book is the story of an immigrant scrapper who became a kingmaker with his unerring instinct for the main chance.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 5, 2025

In later years, I discovered that my father was not only an adviser to kings but a kingmaker.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela