How to Use lonely in a Sentence

lonely

adjective
  • She was a lonely child with few friends.
  • She spent too many lonely nights at home.
  • It was lonely living out in the country.
  • She had a lonely childhood.
  • He was lonely without his wife and children.
  • This is why men feel lonely and left out.
    — Selome Hailu, Variety, 4 June 2026
  • This is what can make the job feel lonely.
    — Matthew Warren, Forbes.com, 5 June 2026
  • Padres fans turn their lonely eyes to you.
    — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Oct. 2025
  • This can feel so lonely cause we're told not to share about this.
    — Hannah Sacks, PEOPLE, 22 Sep. 2025
  • There are a lot of lonely people out there.
    — Latoya Gayle, PEOPLE, 14 Sep. 2025
  • The lonely folks out there were lonely no more.
    — Eric Duvall, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Apr. 2026
  • Your stance and that of some other artists was lonely at first.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 19 Aug. 2021
  • One can be alone but not lonely, or lonely in a crowd.
    — Peter Smith, Fortune, 18 Dec. 2025
  • One can be alone but not lonely, or lonely in a crowd.
    — Peter Smith, Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2026
  • This was one of the hardest and loneliest nights of my life.
    — Literary Hub, 5 Mar. 2026
  • Did no one want to spend time with someone who might be sad and lonely?
    — Annabel Abbs-Streets, Washington Post, 25 July 2024
  • And once that’s gone, there’s just a lonely feeling.
    — Deirdre Durkan, PEOPLE, 20 Apr. 2026
  • What is the lonely penguin meme?
    — Kate Perez, USA Today, 26 Jan. 2026
  • Working from home can be lonely.
    — Sydney Lake, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2025
  • The hopes and fears of the blessed and the lonely, the vital and the frail.
    — Steve Lopezcolumnist, Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan. 2023
  • Our team always jokes, that’s the loneliest night of the week, right?
    — Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Aug. 2024
  • If the woods can seem lonely on a good day, on a fire day the silence breeds pure fear.
    — Boone Ashworth, Wired, 2 Dec. 2021
  • That's not to say living alone and being lonely are the same.
    — Mark Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 11 Aug. 2021
  • My pillow is lonely and the other toys don’t want to play with her.
    — Cnn Underscored Staff, CNN Underscored, 24 Nov. 2020
  • What brings these lonely souls to a diner in the middle of the hot night?
    — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 24 Sep. 2025
  • The job can be lonely and the spotlight is always bright.
    — Jaylon Thompson, Kansas City Star, 25 Feb. 2026
  • And few years down the road, remote work may feel a little less lonely.
    — Nicolás Rivero, Quartz, 28 Apr. 2021
  • Being alone doesn’t feel lonely.
    — Lauren Schuster, Miami Herald, 3 Apr. 2026
  • But her life for the last 20 years has been very lonely and quiet.
    — Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 2 Nov. 2021
  • But her life for the last 20 years has been very lonely and quiet.
    — Amy Dickinson, oregonlive, 1 Nov. 2021

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