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.

The late ayatollah over the years weeded out potential clerical rivals, including former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who played kingmaker when Khamenei was selected as supreme leader in 1989.

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

“I had always been a big Samuel Alito fan,” Leo told the New Yorker, and you can almost imagine the kingmaker saying it with a big wink.

From Salon • May 16, 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