How to Use bacchanal in a Sentence

bacchanal

1 of 2 noun
  • Opel splashed into the round-the-clock bacchanal in the spring of 1977.
    — Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2023
  • In the thick of the bacchanal was Harbaugh, who was now seen as a conquering hero.
    — Rainer Sabin, Detroit Free Press, 18 Aug. 2023
  • The night of the murder, Dmitry throws a bacchanal at a nearby inn.
    — Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023
  • Its ’70s heyday was long gone, but the legend of that bacchanal still pulsed through the venue’s walls.
    — Serena Turner, Vanity Fair, 29 Dec. 2025
  • Crisp, golden french fries are perfect for mopping up all of the remaining morsels and drips—this is what a bacchanal should look like.
    — Sara Mae Albert, Harper's BAZAAR, 2 Aug. 2019
  • Here's the easy way to navigate the program of an academic bacchanal.
    — vanityfair.com, 1 Sep. 2017
  • Early on, his OnlyFans page was a bacchanal of foot fetishism.
    — Jason Parham, WIRED, 19 Aug. 2019
  • What had once been a company dinner turned into a bacchanal of diamonds, furs, jewels and gowns.
    — The Washington Post, OregonLive.com, 4 Mar. 2018
  • With that, the men and women break into separate groups to gossip about their options and prepare for the night's bacchanal.
    — Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 28 Sep. 2022
  • Dozens try to vault the fences to join in the bacchanal, a few are banished in handcuffs, others are shuttled to hospitals for treatment.
    — Greg Kot, chicagotribune.com, 5 Aug. 2019
  • Stone co-founder Steve Wagner leads this five-course, three-cigar and multiple-beer bacchanal.
    — Peter Rowe, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Apr. 2023
  • Eyes Wide Shut, with Hedda and her new husband throwing a bacchanal of a party in a manor house.
    — Ben Jureidini, Them., 22 Aug. 2025
  • The fairies' wild woodland dance bacchanals are also striking, set to droning industrial dance tunes.
    — Laura Demarco, cleveland.com, 16 Oct. 2017
  • La Paulée de Meursault is a seven-hour bacchanal held at the Château de Meursault.
    — Jay McInerney, Town & Country, 17 Mar. 2016
  • The scene is a slow-motion bacchanal, a tableau of pure glamour and delight, a snapshot of carnal-capitalist utopia.
    — New York Times, 11 Sep. 2019
  • Their rollicking redo, set from dusk to hangover at a drunken bacchanal, is vibrant and viciously alive.
    — Amy Nicholson, Twin Cities, 23 Oct. 2025
  • The bacchanal is spiced up this year by the presence of Hollywood gossip column regulars.
    — Town & Country, 2 Apr. 2015
  • Publishing people used to corner the market on yuletide bacchanals.
    — Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 17 Dec. 2025
  • The hanging quickly devolves into an all-out bacchanal, as onlookers drink, dance and kiss in the square surrounding the flailing corpse.
    — Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 13 Feb. 2026
  • The scene ends in an anarchic bacchanal for full ensemble, with bass tubas bellowing a portion of Lucifer’s theme.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 17 June 2019
  • The basketball bacchanal is the thing – swapping pep bands in end zone pits and dancing mascots and eight teams taking one court chasing after the same singular prize.
    — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 20 Mar. 2026
  • Whatever the artist chooses to mount will promptly be Instagrammed to death in an endless summer bacchanal of selfies.
    — New York Times, 15 Apr. 2021
  • Fireworks—plumes of smoke and pinwheeling streaks of sparks—were often deployed to amp up the atmospherics, lending his scenes the feel of a barn-burning bacchanal.
    — Chris Wiley, New Yorker, 4 July 2026
  • And, of course, who will end up dead at the end of the upcoming season of Mike White’s all-star bacchanal — because, of course, somebody always does.
    — Benjamin Svetkey, HollywoodReporter, 18 June 2026
  • The festival is referred to as a Celtic bacchanal that celebrates the island's traditions.
    — Shannon Carlin, refinery29.com, 15 Sep. 2020
  • After his family decides to sell their Hamptons estate, a man and his friends celebrate the end of their summer playground with a bacchanal.
    — Ed Stockly, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2021
  • There is a certain madness that surrounds Miami’s Art Basel bacchanal.
    — Zachary Weiss, Vogue, 30 Nov. 2021
  • Things can get boisterous, too, especially if you're seated in the front bar, which often feels like the Queen City's version of a bacchanal.
    — Keith Pandolfi, Cincinnati Enquirer, 21 Aug. 2025
  • La Placita de Santurce What appears to be a farmer’s market during the week transforms into a full-on bacchanal on the weekends.
    — Suzy Exposito, Condé Nast Traveler, 27 July 2025
  • Coincidentally, the woodland clearing where the bacchanal was filmed lies just up the hill from the former camp that stands in for adult Lottie’s compound.
    — Abby Monteil, Rolling Stone, 31 Mar. 2023

bacchanal

2 of 2 adjective
  • For those flying in, the week promised to be a kind of bacchanal for funding.
    — Arielle Pardes, Wired, 28 Apr. 2021
  • The entire country indulges in a week-long, blossomy bacchanal.
    — Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2018
  • The fourth episode, a modern twist on an age-old wartime plot, features an unexpectedly moving bacchanal.
    — Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2020
  • Here were our five favorite moments from the Miami Beach bacchanal.
    — Kat Bein, Billboard, 2 Feb. 2020
  • Soon thousands of strangers have crowded into the house for a hellish bacchanal straight out of a Fellini film or a Bosch painting.
    — Michael Heaton, cleveland.com, 15 Sep. 2017
  • For decades now, the trade deadline has served as the festive, frolicking bacchanal to which the Spurs never are invited — or at least choose to skip.
    — Mike Finger, San Antonio Express-News, 25 Mar. 2021
  • The post-bacchanal creativity extends to the literary scene in Port of Spain.
    — New York Times, 22 Feb. 2018
  • Video bacchanal Guess how many video journalists are employed at the Washington Post?
    — The Hive, 11 Sep. 2017
  • Prada cleverly conceived a hideaway that was, arguably, the most tranquil respite from the Basel bacchanal outside.
    — Nick Remsen, Vogue, 7 Dec. 2018
  • The week started off with a Raf Simons bacchanal complete with Belgian waffles, dark chocolate, and red wine.
    — Steff Yotka, Vogue, 16 Feb. 2018
  • But this beloved narrative of bacchanal, murder, friendship, and most of all, beauty is an enveloping, involving read, from its perfect prologue to its disastrous end.
    — Emily Temple, Literary Hub, 9 Apr. 2020
  • At the end of several of the lectures, the classroom lights dim and silent scenes play out upstage — alcohol poisoning, an unplanned pregnancy, a bacchanal with shirtless dancing.
    — Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2020
  • Participants say the Mad Max, death-race vibe by day is countered by a Burning Man bacchanal at night, fueled by beer but also lots of theatrics.
    — Jason Nark, Philly.com, 11 May 2018
  • That efficiency will be called on next week during Prime Day, a two-day retail bacchanal Amazon has been putting on since 2015.
    — Mike Murphy, Quartz, 12 July 2019
  • The Art Basel bacchanal returns to Miami Beach this winter, packed with enough fairs, dinners, and late-night revels to exhaust even the most ambitious gallery girl.
    — Emily Cronin, Harper's BAZAAR, 26 Nov. 2013
  • The jet set and glitterati descend here year-round for the white-sand beaches, bass-forward nightlife, and five heady days of Carnival bacchanal celebrations in February or March.
    — Megan Wood, Travel + Leisure, 3 Aug. 2021
  • For chefs with a sense of adventure and edge, a visit by Bronson was an excuse for bacchanal, and validation of something edgier than mere culinary skill, presenting restaurants as sites of unimpeachable cool.
    — New York Times, 29 Mar. 2021
  • In retrospect, Levi sees Zola as a hyper-modernized take on timeless Greek fantasies, which often center on epic journeys marked by adventure, bacchanal, greed, romance, and betrayal.
    — Samantha Hissong, Rolling Stone, 7 July 2021
  • In a more modern era, Elsa Schiaparelli, fashion’s great subverter and Surrealist, delivered a toque hat of bacchanal grapes in 1939.
    — Steff Yotka, Vogue, 30 July 2018

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

Last Updated: