How to Use anguish in a Sentence

anguish

1 of 2 noun
  • They watched in anguish as fire spread through the house.
  • He experienced the anguish of divorce after 10 years of marriage.
  • His murder was met with fury and anguish.
    — Literary Hub, 6 Feb. 2026
  • There’s a feeling of love met with anguish.
    — Hazlitt, 8 Oct. 2025
  • Their mother cried out in anguish.
    — ABC News, 27 June 2026
  • But sometimes their anguish spilled out.
    — Caitlin Dickerson, The Atlantic, 3 Mar. 2026
  • This sets in motion the chain of events that gets her over her fears, her anguish.
    — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 9 Oct. 2025
  • What began as anguish over the war in Gaza has widened.
    — ABC News, 15 Apr. 2026
  • Yet even the loudest music could not drown out the anguish.
    — Milena Malaver, Miami Herald, 4 Oct. 2025
  • The world of sports brought us joy and anguish (think Dodgers in the playoffs).
    — Times Photography Staff, Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2023
  • Then a nation’s anguish began to churn.
    — Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Here the men and women and children reveal their anguish and loss.
    — Martin Kuz, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Apr. 2023
  • After months of anguish, the swearing-in came as a rush of relief.
    — Jody García, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Jan. 2024
  • There are no right answers, only anguish.
    — Nate Jones, Vulture, 2 Jan. 2026
  • There was so much collective pain and anguish on that stage and throughout the venue.
    — Julie Seabaugh, Los Angeles Times, 6 Nov. 2023
  • Pain and joy, an equal balancing, a vying bright anguish of the two.
    — Maggie O’Farrell, Literary Hub, 2 June 2026
  • But nothing that can be said can begin to take away the anguish and the pain of these moments.
    — Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 30 Dec. 2025
  • Still, the show leaves the audience with a feeling of anguish.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 15 Mar. 2024
  • His family says they are 'destroyed' by his loss and filled with anguish.
    — Paris Barraza, USA Today, 31 Dec. 2025
  • The film has more than its share of anguish, but that's no reason for audiences to avoid it.
    — Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Jan. 2026
  • That last sentence comes out choked with anguish, his voice breaking on the final word.
    — Amy Driscoll, Miami Herald, 3 May 2026
  • At the cemetery, drug-war widows unleashed on him the full force of their anger and anguish.
    — Sheila Coronel, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Williams doesn’t really go for the grandest forms of anguish, the way so many young pop singers do.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 15 May 2026
  • Though the air is thick with anguish, three people start to grope their way through it toward each other.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Both poets spoke in a silvery but fierce timbre, their words measured but full of anguish.
    — Madison Bloom, Pitchfork, 5 Jan. 2024
  • Narratives shift and turn, and the faces of anguish and disarray are many.
    — Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2023
  • All the energy and elation, agony and anguish?
    — Cody Stavenhagen, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2026
  • Two friends, each with family trapped in Gaza, are united by anguish.
    — Jenny Gold, Los Angeles Times, 26 Feb. 2024
  • The story is, in many ways, about a kidnapping, and there’s all sorts of anguish and dread going on.
    — Hazlitt, 20 Mar. 2024
  • The Rialto’s crowd chatted all the way through his anguish.
    — Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 17 Mar. 2026

anguish

2 of 2 verb
  • I anguished over the loss of my father for years afterwards.
  • Ghosh's mother, her face anguished, wailed and fell atop her dead son.
    — John Branch, Anchorage Daily News, 19 Dec. 2017
  • Well, for folks that are anguished or angry at this day, my urging is vote.
    — Ella Nilsen, Vox, 7 Oct. 2018
  • Baker anguished about the matter for months.
    — Anat Rubin, ProPublica, 4 Nov. 2023
  • There is a mood to these stories, sardonic and anguished in turn, that gets under your skin.
    — Emma Alpern, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
  • Diddy’s anguished plea for mercy.
    — Daniel Arkin, NBC news, 3 Oct. 2025
  • Jarryn’s mother, Suzanne Yorty, was anguished, but not shocked at the fate of her high school sweetheart.
    — Aubrey Whelan, Philly.com, 11 May 2018
  • Others are anguished because their pregnancy is a result of assault or rape.
    — Guest Columnist/cleveland.com, cleveland.com, 18 Mar. 2018
  • In the movies, the victim was usually a man, with a beet-red face, clutching his chest and falling to his knees with one last anguished cry.
    — Jessica Knoll, The Cut, 17 Oct. 2017
  • Its walls preserve the anguished scratched scrawls of past inmates, including some in Hebrew.
    — Elisabetta Povoledo, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2017
  • Julius Caesar anguished over falling short of Alexander the Great.
    — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 20 Aug. 2019
  • Hong Kong is an anguishing example.
    — Michelle Kuo, The Dial, 14 Apr. 2026
  • That stunning playoff loss was one of many anguishing disappointments for Dodger fans of that era.
    — Bruce Weber, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Feb. 2020
  • Ashby told Folwer, and the two of them allegedly anguished over whether to tell their daughter.
    — Sarah Gray, Time, 4 Apr. 2018
  • Morgan’s childhood was filled with anguishing losses.
    — Sam McDowell 8, Kansas City Star, 8 Feb. 2026
  • Hillary Clinton seems to be anguishing over her ex-candidacy.
    — Howard Kurtz, Fox News, 9 May 2017
  • Insert anguished grimace emoji here.
    — Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Many of you expressed sorrow and anguish over the needless death and the sheer number of mass shootings, more than 200 so far this year alone.
    — Christina Prignano, BostonGlobe.com, 31 May 2022
  • For months, Democrats had been anguishing that the primary had turned into a circular firing squad.
    — John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 5 Mar. 2020
  • The parents often were anguished by the prospect of their children becoming part of a different culture with its own language.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 29 July 2019
  • This friend had lain face down in the Garden of Gethsemane, anguishing over the events that would inevitably unfold.
    — Atlanta Life, ajc, 23 Mar. 2018
  • The case has generated protests, questions about police tactics, and anguish for family and friends.
    — Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 17 Mar. 2022
  • While some people can ignore the apparent tragedy inherent in such decisions, others anguish over them.
    — John Danaher, WIRED, 2 Feb. 2023
  • There was no anguishing back in the 1950s about national identity.
    — Paul Hoggart, Newsweek, 31 Aug. 2014
  • Our hearts are anguished in the face of so much devastation and destruction that [Hurricane] Maria caused.
    — Cristian Farias, Daily Intelligencer, 27 Sep. 2017
  • But as her shell cracks, Dern moves from perplexity to anguish to incandescent rage, never once overplaying her hand.
    — Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 3 June 2022
  • Forty-four years of anticipation turned to anguish, all because of excursions to Seattle.
    — Star Tribune, 10 Dec. 2020
  • But at post office branches throughout the region, people cited a long list of problems — from late bills to anguish over the November election.
    — Kevin Fagan, SFChronicle.com, 18 Aug. 2020
  • The SuperSonics’ departure still provokes anger and anguish among fans.
    — Dina Bass, Fortune, 22 Oct. 2022
  • That’s not an uncommon reaction for drafted centers in Warriors’ history, except that this time the tears were of joy, not anguish.
    — Scott Ostler, SFChronicle.com, 18 Nov. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'anguish.' 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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