How to Use attempted in a Sentence

attempted

adjective
  • The attempted on-side kick failed.
    — Kevin J. Farmer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Aug. 2025
  • Ernest attempts to identify which of the hostages is guilty of the murder and the attempted heist.
    — Sandra Dallas, Denver Post, 19 Apr. 2026
  • Cook sued Trump on Thursday over the attempted firing.
    — Max Zahn, ABC News, 28 Aug. 2025
  • The movie will cover both Christy’s initial success and her attempted murder.
    — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2025
  • It has been widely described online as an attempted beheading.
    — Joanne Stocker, CBS News, 10 June 2026
  • Thieves stole a dump tuck early Wednesday, crashed it into a convenient store and set it on fire during an attempted smash-and-grab, police said.
    — Adam Ferrise, cleveland, 16 Feb. 2022
  • Hayes was identified as the suspect in nine burglary incidents and two attempted burglaries, police said.
    — Tom Dougherty, CBS News, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Prosecutors allege Konig attacked his wife on that hike, striking her multiple times in an attempted killing.
    — Stepheny Price, FOXNews.com, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Game fixing of any kind — actual or attempted — results in a permanent ban from the NFL.
    — Ryan Gaydos, Fox News, 30 Sep. 2023
  • An attempted Fashion District heist in May 2024 left one man dead and created a mystery for police.
    — Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times, 10 Feb. 2026
  • But nothing can prepare us for the horrific chaos of the attempted murder, with audience members, security and medics mobbing the stage to halt the attack and urgently tend to the victim.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 25 Jan. 2026
  • Lawmakers recently passed legislation which would add attempted murder to the list of eligible charges in Aniah's Law.
    — Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Zetterlund struck for the Senators thanks to a lucky bounce as his attempted pass ramped off of Gustav Forsling’s stick and past Bobrovsky a little more than four minutes into the contest.
    — Miami Herald, 11 Jan. 2026
  • At this time, Conduent has no evidence of any attempted or actual misuse of any information potentially affected by this incident.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 14 Nov. 2025
  • So when the British flag came down from Belfast City Hall as a result of a vote by the city government in 2012, loyalist protests broke out, leading to an attempted storming of the building.
    — Philip Metres august 27, Literary Hub, 27 Aug. 2025
  • A day later, people out playing with their kids at Two Trails Park Friday morning were unaware that a man had just been arrested and charged with an attempted murder, after allegedly attacking a woman there with a knife.
    — Kendrick Calfee, Kansas City Star, 20 Mar. 2026
  • Curtis becomes the focus of an Internal Affairs investigation after shooting one of Buddy’s unarmed students during an attempted arrest.
    — Oline H. Cogdill, Sun Sentinel, 1 Apr. 2026
  • Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva initially claimed his investigators found probable cause that the crash was an intentional attack on law enforcement and described the case as an attempted murder.
    — James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2026
  • Protesters were further incensed on Wednesday evening when ICE agents in Minneapolis shot a Venezuelan immigrant in the leg during an attempted arrest.
    — Juliana Kim, NPR, 15 Jan. 2026
  • One man also survived an attempted overdose in connection with Auborn in December 2022, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
    — Madison E. Goldberg, PEOPLE, 23 Dec. 2025
  • The incident was initially being investigated as an attempted murder-suicide, KSTP previously reported; the latest statement from the Attorney's Office did not mention this.
    — Samira Asma-Sadeque, PEOPLE, 30 Dec. 2025
  • Ross, a 10-year law enforcement veteran with ICE, was seriously injured in June in a separate incident in the Minneapolis area when he was dragged by a car during an attempted arrest, requiring 33 stitches and hospital care, court records show.
    — Nicole Sganga, CBS News, 14 Jan. 2026
  • Connecticut’s unexpected winning streak The future of the Connecticut Sun is in flux, with the Mohegan Tribe ownership attempting to sell the team while the WNBA complicates any attempted relocation.
    — Sabreena Merchant, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2025
  • The cancellation of an LGBTQ health care conference, a pro-Israel speaker and a Palestinian artist's exhibition, as well as an attempted shouting down of conservative speakers all influenced IU's ranking by FIRE, as well.
    — Cate Charron, IndyStar, 17 Nov. 2025
  • Back in June 2025, when a system that could translate brain signals into sounds was demonstrated at the University of California—Davis, Ars asked Maitreyee Wairagkar, a neuroprosthetics researcher who led this effort, how her BCI could differentiate between inner and attempted speech.
    — Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 23 Aug. 2025

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