How to Use orphan in a Sentence

orphan

1 of 2 noun
  • Who is the adorable on-screen orphan with the big voice?
    — Gillian Telling, PEOPLE, 27 Dec. 2025
  • Their 6-year-old son is now an orphan.
    — Julianna Duennes Russ, Austin American Statesman, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Their 6-year-old son is now an orphan.
    — Julianna Duennes Russ, Austin American Statesman, 9 Jan. 2026
  • But this didn’t make Evie and her sister orphans.
    — Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Both my parents died in the past few months, leaving me an orphan in midlife.
    — Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 25 Jan. 2023
  • This time, it’s embarked upon by a young orphan boy and his beloved camel.
    — Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 6 Dec. 2023
  • Daisy, the vengeful orphan with more swagger than sense.
    — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 27 May 2026
  • After her friend dies, she is left to take on the care of orphan Gael aged 8.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 30 Nov. 2022
  • There was an aspect of him that was like a lost orphan, like this kind of crazy idiot savant.
    — Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone, 16 Oct. 2025
  • The archive footage captures ragged children who look like orphans, street kids.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 31 Oct. 2025
  • His grandfather was an orphan that went on to have a large family.
    — Liza Foreman, Variety, 19 Nov. 2022
  • This is a small story—an orphan boy working in a tea stall falls in love with a girl who can never be his.
    — Cressida Leyshon, New Yorker, 23 Nov. 2025
  • What if Bruce Wayne wasn’t an orphan — would there still be a Batman?
    — Todd Spangler, Variety, 23 May 2022
  • Riad was raised in a school for orphans, his daughter Khuzama said.
    — Adam Nossiter, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2024
  • Emily, like Anne, is an orphan, but there the resemblance ends.
    — V.m. Braganza, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Apr. 2023
  • Flights for orphans were organized.
    — Louis Menand, New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2026
  • Eliminating orphan wells needs to start at the drilling permit.
    — Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 Feb. 2026
  • Who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, who loves the strangers and provides for them.
    — Irene Wright, USA Today, 10 Mar. 2026
  • Masters grew up as an orphan after her parents abandoned her in Ukraine.
    — Natasha Dye, Peoplemag, 13 Dec. 2022
  • From that, Cate kind of turns into an orphan, and Marie is an orphan in her mind for a long time.
    — Abbey White, HollywoodReporter, 16 Oct. 2025
  • As an orphan alone in Brussels, his dream of reaching England fades.
    — Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 3 Feb. 2026
  • Her son, Hrisha, is now an orphan, his father having died of a brain hemorrhage last year.
    — Megan Specia Brendan Hoffman, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2022
  • While that may be true in politics, American sports leagues are filled with wealthy orphans.
    — Maurice O'Sullivan, The Orlando Sentinel, 13 June 2026
  • In that red-haired orphan, the red-lipped, tattooed Workman has a kindred spirit.
    — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 3 Feb. 2024
  • The orphanage took Sonia in but soon could manage to feed the orphans only three beans a day.
    — Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 19 Dec. 2023
  • Atenea, an orphan, is taken in by a family and everything seems to change.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 25 Nov. 2025
  • Benjamin said many of the Hamas fighters are orphans due to Israeli attacks.
    — Brady Knox, Washington Examiner, 30 Nov. 2023
  • The main risks include strain on the mother's body or that the orphan will be rejected and/or spread disease to the litter.
    — Maria Azzurra Volpe, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Sep. 2025
  • The shooting sparked shock and outrage and left Renee Good’s 6-year-old son an orphan.
    — Judy L. Thomas, Kansas City Star, 9 Jan. 2026
  • Joel Edgerton plays Robert Grainier, an orphan who grows up to be a stolid working man.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 21 Nov. 2025

orphan

2 of 2 verb
  • My right wrist has been orphaned.
    — Ayana Underwood, Outside, 29 Dec. 2025
  • He was orphaned at 9 and raised by his aunt, per The Guardian.
    — Charna Flam, PEOPLE, 29 Oct. 2025
  • For starters, Elisa was found in a river and orphaned as a baby.
    — Peggy Truong, Cosmopolitan, 6 Mar. 2018
  • One of the tragedies of the Gommage is that children are left orphaned.
    — G Kirilloff, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
  • The four currently at the zoo were orphaned when their mothers were killed by boats.
    — Scott Wartman, Cincinnati.com, 24 June 2019
  • But many of those that survive the bombardment have been left orphaned.
    — Zoe Magee, ABC News, 8 Nov. 2023
  • Aracely was convinced the virus would kill her and orphan her children.
    — Evan Allen and Beth Teitell, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Mar. 2021
  • Above all, the children murdered, and the many children now orphaned.
    — Tommy McArdle, Peoplemag, 30 Oct. 2023
  • An unattended fawn doesn’t mean it’s been abandoned or orphaned.
    — Cody Godwin, USA Today, 13 May 2026
  • And a 6-year-old boy is now orphaned after his younger brother and parents were gunned down.
    — Holly Yan, CNN, 10 May 2023
  • Some had been orphaned or were placed in foster homes when their birth parents became unable to care for them.
    — Ivana Kottasová, CNN, 15 Mar. 2024
  • The young bobcats may have been on school grounds because they’d been orphaned or abandoned, the news release states.
    — oregonlive, 13 Nov. 2019
  • No orphaning going on here by anyone.
    — Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Kalluk, a 24-year-old polar bear, had arrived after he’d been orphaned as a cub.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Aug. 2025
  • Williams was orphaned at 4 and spent the rest of his life overcoming obstacles.
    — Janet Eastman, OregonLive.com, 31 May 2017
  • The attack left over 60 children orphaned.
    — Catherine Bray, Variety, 15 Feb. 2026
  • If they were found to be orphaned, they were allowed to travel to the United States.
    — Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 9 Dec. 2019
  • Otherwise, those funds are stuck on-chain in wallets now orphaned by their only access point.
    — Chris Groshong, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Volunteers stepped in to provide round-the-clock care after the litter was orphaned.
    — Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Last year, three bear cubs were orphaned after their mother was hit and killed on Tioga Road.
    — Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 Dec. 2017
  • He was orphaned as a teenager, but said community elders raised him and filled his head with stories of the past.
    — Gregory S. Schneider, Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2023
  • The other struggle was protecting children who have been left orphaned.
    — Sarah Moreno july 2, Miami Herald, 2 July 2026
  • With Issei now orphaned and Camille adrift, the siblings are left to rely on each other.
    — Alison Herman, Variety, 11 Mar. 2026
  • Some have been orphaned, while others endure the fear of their parents being killed by Israeli strikes.
    — Sana Noor Haq, CNN, 2 Mar. 2024
  • He was orphaned at 12 and reared by foster parents on a farm in the nearby town of Hurleyville.
    — Richard Goldstein, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2019
  • There were so many children left alone, abandoned and orphaned by AIDS.
    — Kathleen Hou, The Cut, 13 Apr. 2018
  • Over a period of 13 years, she was orphaned, married and widowed with a young daughter.
    — Vivian Yee, New York Times, 20 June 2026
  • However, even before she was orphaned, she was largely ignored by her parents.
    — Literary Hub, 13 Nov. 2025
  • My father was orphaned at a young age and at 13 was sent to the British colony of Singapore.
    — Mishal Husain, Bloomberg, 15 May 2026
  • Much of his youth was spent at a reform school for boys in California after he was orphaned in childhood.
    — Andrew Doran, National Review, 1 Aug. 2017

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