How to Use heinous in a Sentence

heinous

adjective
  • These murders were especially heinous.
  • Any found guilty of truly heinous crimes.
    — City News Service, Oc Register, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Any found guilty of truly heinous crimes.
    — City News Service, Oc Register, 28 Mar. 2026
  • But this is a tragedy and deserves to be called out as heinous.
    — Nbc Universal, NBC News, 27 Aug. 2023
  • Why aren't colleges doing more to crack down on these heinous crimes?
    — Kayla Webley, Marie Claire, 11 Dec. 2013
  • When somebody gets hurt because of that, that is one of the most heinous crimes.
    — Dorany Pineda, latimes.com, 9 July 2019
  • And mom had found voice to come out as a survivor of a series of heinous crimes.
    — Jessi Hempel, Time, 28 Sep. 2022
  • Lebanon lost its chance to set legal precedent against decades of heinous crimes.
    — Lynn Zovighian, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Stinky-ass shoes being heinous is an issue both sides of the aisle can agree on.
    — Mark Anthony Green, GQ, 24 Sep. 2017
  • So why would the judiciary go so easy on such a heinous crime?
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 4 Apr. 2022
  • And so ensued the hunt for who was behind their heinous assault.
    — Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 18 Jan. 2024
  • This is not just the story of that tragic moment and that heinous crime.
    — Samantha Balaban, NPR, 14 June 2025
  • They were primed to storm the Capitol and do all manner of heinous things.
    — Bryan Box, The New Republic, 10 Sep. 2021
  • The series builds to an act of hauntingly heinous evil.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 13 Oct. 2025
  • Accused and now convicted of such a heinous crime.
    — Melissa Gaffney, CBS News, 13 May 2026
  • There shouldn’t be a statute of limitations on crimes as heinous as these.
    — Marcos Breton, sacbee, 21 June 2016
  • The city's response was a resounding 'no' to this heinous crime.
    — Aaron Katersky, ABC News, 18 June 2024
  • The sites of heinous crimes have at times been made available for jurors to view in person.
    — Mike Baker, New York Times, 28 Dec. 2023
  • Torin shows up with yet another heinous outfit.
    — Olivia Crandall, Vulture, 8 Aug. 2025
  • White adults doing the most heinous things and just getting away with it or being called boy or like a kid.
    — Janice Gassam Asare, Forbes, 11 June 2021
  • What followed was one of the most lucrative and heinous robberies of all time.
    — William J. Kole, Chron, 2 Apr. 2021
  • What followed was one of the most lucrative and heinous robberies of all time.
    — NBC News, 1 Apr. 2021
  • Justice must be done for the victims of these heinous crimes and their families.
    — Washington Post, 26 July 2019
  • And for the record, all the people involved in the heinous murder of Sgt.
    — Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 17 July 2024
  • Which leads to the heinous practice of people bribing the maître d’ at a restaurant.
    — John Mariani, Forbes, 8 Aug. 2022
  • Whereas the cross burning was an actual heinous act that took place!
    — Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2026
  • And in some cases, critics have tied Gascón’s policies to heinous crimes.
    — James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2024
  • For his heinous actions, Windom was sentenced to death.
    — Scott Maxwell, The Orlando Sentinel, 12 Aug. 2025
  • For a movie about killing your wife, wasting Cher is Faithful’s most heinous crime.
    — Elle Carroll, Vulture, 20 May 2021
  • Against all odds, the girls survived, and so ensued the hunt for who was behind their heinous assault.
    — Sarah Nelson, USA TODAY, 19 Jan. 2024

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