How to Use alms in a Sentence

alms

noun
  • Every day, the monk walked down the mountain asking for alms.
    — Clara Wang, refinery29.com, 2 Dec. 2020
  • Monday’s coup was staged before dawn, when the roosters had not yet crowed and the monks had not set forth, barefoot, for their morning alms.
    — New York Times, 6 Feb. 2021
  • The motions also draw from biblical admonitions on the giving of alms.
    — The Salt Lake Tribune, 25 Apr. 2022
  • In the early church, public confession was the norm, and penance involved public displays of reform, such as fasting, alms-giving and prayer.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Aug. 2019
  • Fewer in-person rituals meant fewer people dropping alms in the collection basket, which priests depended on to pay bills and buy groceries.
    — Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 14 Feb. 2021
  • Already foreigners outnumber locals at the traditional dawn alms-giving ceremony for the monks.
    — Ewen Bell, National Geographic, 10 July 2019
  • What in Europe had been a discreet offering with alms boxes kept at the back of the church (alms for the poor) became a central ritual activity in America.
    — James Hudnut-Beumler, Washington Post, 6 July 2017
  • In all three, refraining from eating is intimately connected with an additional focus on prayer, and the practice of assisting the poor by giving alms or donating food.
    — Joanne M. Pierce, The Conversation, 22 Feb. 2021
  • Known for serving the poor, Saint Stephen is traditionally celebrated with charity and the distribution of alms.
    — Erin Blakemore, History & Culture, 21 Dec. 2020
  • Each year, The Queen commemorates this by offering 'alms' to senior citizens in recognition of their service to the church and to the local community.
    — Stephanie Petit, PEOPLE.com, 14 Apr. 2022
  • The group charges vehicles transporting goods, demands that businesses pay a monthly fee and forcibly collects zakat, the annual alms that observant Muslims are expected to pay.
    — Abdi Latif Dahir, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2020
  • On Maundy Thursday, the Queen traditionally offers ‘alms’ to senior citizens to recognize their service to the church or community.
    — Victoria Murphy, Town & Country, 14 Apr. 2022
  • By his lights gestures and ceremonies can have value in disciplining oneself, but charity toward one’s neighbor, of which giving of alms is only one expression, is free and Christian when it is done without thought for one’s own benefit.
    — Marilynne Robinson, New Republic, 12 Dec. 2017
  • Religion proved to be an especially powerful social glue, providing common purpose, mutual protection, and a modicum of alms distribution, often enforced by the idea of retributive deities and their earthly emissaries.
    — The New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2021
  • In 2007, amid rising fuel prices and yet another economic crisis, Buddhist monks led mass protests in Yangon and other cities, overturning their alms bowls to signal disenchantment with the military junta.
    — Hannah Beech, BostonGlobe.com, 29 July 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'alms.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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