How to Use cattail in a Sentence

cattail

noun
  • The cattails were cleaned in here.
    — Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Most of the green tufts of grass are made up of wild rice and cattails.
    — Ben Raines | [email protected], AL.com, 30 Aug. 2017
  • Sometimes that means tiny seeds or cattail fluff or tiny pieces of sticks.
    — Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 24 Dec. 2025
  • In a low point to the south, a small cattail marsh gathered runoff from the area.
    — Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 23 Dec. 2017
  • The crowd seemed to back off, but many still left the arena that night cattails in hand.
    — Charles Trepany, USA TODAY, 19 Oct. 2019
  • What about touching the base of the new cattail spike with a squirt of Roundup?
    — oregonlive, 16 May 2021
  • Muskrat lodges—small mounds made from bulrush and cattail—dot the landscape.
    — National Geographic, 3 Feb. 2016
  • In swamp country, that might be where swampy cattails butt up to high ground with timber on it.
    — Josh Honeycutt, Outdoor Life, 9 Oct. 2024
  • But as Plumier wades through saplings and cattails, his headlamp is on the prowl.
    — Sophie Hartley, IndyStar, 9 Sep. 2025
  • New cattail leaves grow 2 to 5 feet, making marshes look green again.
    — Jim Gilbert, Star Tribune, 27 May 2021
  • Those plants include cattails, which thrive in wet and marshy conditions.
    — Alexandra Harrell, Sourcing Journal, 24 Nov. 2025
  • While the nest floats, it is usually attached to reed or cattail stalks to anchor it in place.
    — Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Aug. 2019
  • November is for kickin’ roosters in the cattails behind a good bird dog.
    — Drew Palmer, Outdoor Life, 15 May 2020
  • If there were no project, the prediction is that the waterway would fill with cattails in time.
    — Lola Sherman Seaside Musings, sandiegouniontribune.com, 22 June 2017
  • Those cattails provide a lot of thermal cover in most winters.
    — Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 6 Mar. 2023
  • Fulvous nests can usually be found among tall reeds, cattails, and other brush.
    — M.d. Johnson, Field & Stream, 10 Jan. 2024
  • Standing in a clump of cattails, the mist on the slough before me shrouded the shapes of teal sitting on the far side.
    — Steve Meyer, Alaska Dispatch News, 5 Sep. 2017
  • Marshes often have more grasslike plants, such as cattails and bulrushes.
    — Jon Sweetman, The Conversation, 30 Sep. 2022
  • The man dragged the lifeless woman to a tree surrounded by high cattails and covered her in a quilt.
    — Lizz Schumer, People.com, 29 Dec. 2024
  • One of my best public-land spots is a hardwood peninsula that juts out into a big cattail marsh.
    — Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 21 Apr. 2022
  • One of my best public-land spots is a hardwood peninsula that juts out into a big cattail marsh.
    — Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 16 Apr. 2026
  • For example, in a sea of cattails, an island dry spot will likely have some tree cover around it.
    — Josh Honeycutt, Outdoor Life, 9 Oct. 2024
  • This is a hike to take at a leisurely pace with eyes and ears tuned to the tree canopy and cattail reeds swaying in boggy inlets.
    — Mare Czinar, The Arizona Republic, 20 Apr. 2022
  • An Eastern phoebe perched on a cattail stem and an incoming swamp sparrow called from the thick grass.
    — Taylor Piephoff, Charlotte Observer, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Hundreds of lily pads float amid the cattails, some gnarly-edged from too much sun, others bursting with buttery yellow buds.
    — Ashlea Halpern, Condé Nast Traveler, 15 July 2024
  • This particular type is made of at least 50 percent swamp plants like reeds, sedges, and cattails.
    — Patrick Di Justo, WIRED, 28 July 2010
  • As spring progresses, look for shallow bays, shallow shorelines, weed beds, cattails, and brush along the banks.
    — Nicole Stone, Outdoor Life, 15 May 2024
  • Their firm, Jíbaro Furniture, makes use of hardwoods and cattail.
    — Javier E. Piñero, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 May 2023
  • Mosquitoes that breed in the reeds and cattails around the lagoon have plagued nearby residents for years.
    — Phil Diehl, sandiegouniontribune.com, 22 Apr. 2018
  • The male blackbirds tend to perch atop cattails, while the females spend more time on the ground, foraging and hopping around on lily pads.
    — Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 July 2023

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