How do you use the word "deem" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "deem" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "deem": The state can take your children away if they deem you an unfit mother. You know Americans are jealous of the British accent that they deem more prestigious.

Deem Meaning

/diːm/

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

verbTo hold in belief or estimation; to adjudge as a conclusion; to regard as being; to evaluate according to one's beliefs; to account.

verbTo think, judge, or have or hold as an opinion; to decide or believe on consideration; to suppose.

Sentence Examples

The state can take your children away if they deem you an unfit mother.

You know Americans are jealous of the British accent that they deem more prestigious.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

hold

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The committee will ____ the proposal as acceptable after review.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The state can take your children away if they ____ you an unfit mother.

Word Origin & History

From Middle English dēmen (“to judge; to criticize, condemn; to impose a penalty on, sentence; to direct, order; to believe, think, deem”), from Old English dēman (“to decide, decree, deem”), from Proto-West Germanic *dōmijan, from Proto-Germanic *dōmijaną (“to judge, think”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to set, put”). The word is cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bokmål dømme (“to judge”), Dutch doemen (“to condemn, foredoom”), North Frisian dema (“to judge, recognise”), Norwegian Nynorsk døma (“to judge”), Swedish döma (“to judge, sentence, condemn”), Finnish tuomita (“to judge”). It is also related to doom.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"To this sect belong also the Skakounui, or Jumpers. […] They refuse to take an oath, and will not bear arms, deeming it sinful to shed human blood." — 1874, “Types of Russian Character”, in Edmund Routledge, editor, Routledge’s Every Boy’s Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: George Routledge & Sons, →OCLC, page 254:

"It may ſeeme a rude diſpoſition that ſorteth not with the quality of the age; and pollicy deemeth that vertue a vice, that modeſty, ſimplicity, that reſolotenes, diſſolutenes, that conformeth not it ſelfe with a ſupple and deft correſpondence to the preſent time." — 1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e., Gabriel Harvey], Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, Intituled Nashes S. Fame, London: […] Iohn Wolfe, →OCLC; republished as John Payne Collier, editor, Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. […] (Miscellaneous Tracts. Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I; no. 8), [London]: [s.n.], [1870], →OCLC, page 41:

"[T]herefore had Abel and his works acceptance, when Cain and his had none, becauſe he was righteous, not ſo eſteemed of God while he was not ſo indeed (as T[homas] D[anson] deems) who becauſe he ſo does, deems that God (as himſelf) deems thoſe and theirs to be good and righteous, […]" — 1660, Samuel Fisher, “The Fourth Apologeticall, and Expostulatory Exercitation”, in Rusticus ad Academicos in Exercitationibus Expostulatoriis, Apologeticis Quatuor: The Rustick’s Alarm to the Rabbies, […], London: Printed for Robert Wilson, →OCLC, chapter VI, page 220:

"[I]f a man doe really deem the weather to be cold, or that his body is diſtempered, he putteth on warmer cloathes, or taketh phyſick: although peradventure he is miſtaken in both: for his deeming them to be ſo, maketh him demeane himſelfe in ſuch ſort, as if really they were ſo." — 1665, Kenelme Digby [i.e., Kenelm Digby], “[The Second Treatise: Declaring the Nature and Operations of Mans Soule.] Of Thinking and Knowing”, in Two Treatises: In the One of which, the Nature of Bodies; in the Other, the Nature of Mans Soule is Looked into: In Way of Discovery of the Immortality of Reasonable Soules, London: Printed for Iohn Williams, […], →OCLC, page 18:

"So Chriſtian came up with him again, and ſaid, Sir, you talk as if you knew ſomething more than all the World doth; and if I take not my mark amiſs, I deem I have half a gueſs of you: Is not your name Mr. By-ends of Fair-ſpeech?" — 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, pages 139–140:

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