How to Use peal in a Sentence

peal

1 of 2 noun
  • This last part seemed to be a joke, eliciting a peal of laughter from his wife.
    — Natasha O'Neill, Vanity Fair, 3 Feb. 2026
  • Church bells ring briefly each quarter hour to sound time, their melodic peals blending with ocean breezes.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 7 Apr. 2026
  • Many of the ringers wore earplugs or headphones to muffle the deafening peals.
    — Joseph Wilson, The Christian Science Monitor, 8 July 2024
  • The rhythm of young voices in the water could be the peal of Archaic bells.
    — Antonia Quirke, Condé Nast Traveler, 8 May 2024
  • Then a peal of thunder crackled through the heavens over the festival site.
    — al, 20 May 2022
  • Then the bittersweet peal of her mother’s bell would beckon her home for dinner.
    — Stephen Humphries, The Christian Science Monitor, 3 Feb. 2021
  • That's when demand is at its peal and stadiums as well as third-parties charge as much fans are willing to pay.
    — Khristopher J. Brooks, CBS News, 9 Sep. 2022
  • Its color ranges from an amber as clear as the peal of a bell to the bold gold of a questionable urine specimen.
    — Troy Patterson, The New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2019
  • His quiet, mischievous sense of humor was always greeted with peals of laughter from those in on the joke.
    — courant.com, 30 Jan. 2018
  • Together, these forces gathered strength, peaked, and faded, yielding to the high peals of a lone basset horn.
    — Zachary Lewis, cleveland.com, 12 Jan. 2018
  • For raising a joy up in me that bursts forth in uninhibited raucous peals of laughter.
    — Eric Todisco, PEOPLE.com, 24 Dec. 2019
  • At the top of Section 181, the drum is as startling as a peal of thunder from a clear blue sky.
    — Bill Livingston, cleveland, 3 Feb. 2023
  • Once the president, the clients, and a ragtag of press had settled around the fountain a peal of bells rang out to mark the start of the show.
    — Luke Leitch, Vogue, 8 July 2017
  • Now at my own table, the taste rings with the familiar peal of chiles and herbs; the flavor is almost nostalgic.
    — Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2020
  • The two women break into peals of laughter, sounding more like old friends than therapist and patient.
    — ABC News, 27 May 2026
  • That briefest of teaser shots launched an armada of memes, and one of the most impressive responses mixes that porg peal.
    — Michael Cavna, kansascity, 12 Oct. 2017
  • And yet, the same peal of individualism that rang in his predecessor’s words still echoes in his.
    — Ed Yong, The Atlantic, 9 June 2021
  • Inside the theater, the audience, mostly silent just a moment ago, breaks out into peals of laughter.
    — Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 14 July 2019
  • On a visit, a group of women played poker around a plastic table, their banter breaking out into peals of laughter.
    — Aurora Almendral, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2020
  • Juvenile bliss had long contoured this abrasive band, whose songs rattled like playgrounds, and whose shouts rang like the peals of petulant children.
    — Samuel Hyland, Pitchfork, 17 Mar. 2026
  • Each peal of the bell pierced the air, then subsided into a ringing vibration that lasted several seconds.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 July 2019
  • Following three peals of the ship’s alarm (long, short, long), the crew members assembled on the foredeck for their first ever nighttime rescue.
    — Hereward Holland, National Geographic, 12 Sep. 2016
  • In Parliament Square, the music was drowned out by the peals of Westminster Abbey.
    — Sam Knight, New Yorker, 14 May 2026
  • Assuming the role of a human clapper, Holzinger struck its lip again and again, sending a sonorous peal across the Biennale grounds.
    — Tessa Solomon, ARTnews.com, 24 June 2026
  • Within hours of arriving, what sounded like a distant peal of thunder rolled in—in this case, the rumble of a harmless, but still awe-inspiring, small-scale avalanche.
    — Samantha Falewée, Condé Nast Traveler, 11 Oct. 2024
  • Nor will there be a celebratory peal of bells at Westminster Abbey, as the church where the queen was married and crowned is currently closed.
    — Stephanie Toone, ajc, 21 Apr. 2020
  • In the theatre, though, peals of laughter drowned out Melton’s cries and the scene’s devastatingly anticlimactic end.
    — Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2025
  • The Bear nominee Ayo Edebiri stepped out in an off-the-shoulder black velvet Chanel dress embellished with resin and peals brooches.
    — Jackie Fields, PEOPLE, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Langen gives #2 a tremulousness that’s equally capable of bursting into tears or cheering with a stentorian peal.
    — Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Labored and unfunny, that film, from 2016, sounded like a cinematic death rattle rather than peals of joyous wedding bells.
    — Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times, 13 Feb. 2025

peal

2 of 2 verb
  • Winds rose, lightning flickered and thunder crashed and pealed as rain poured down.
    — Martin Weil, Washington Post, 20 Aug. 2019
  • The bells of Westminster Abbey pealed for an hour.
    — Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2026
  • But this time the guitarist peals a blistering line that seems to run the head melody backward.
    — John Kaag, WSJ, 14 July 2017
  • That rang a familiar alarm bell in my head that didn't stop pealing throughout JeffBo's time on the stage.
    — Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 18 Oct. 2017
  • Lively conversations peal out from the many restaurants, cafés, and lounges where locals and visitors mingle late into the night.
    — Condé Nast Traveler, 17 Feb. 2026
  • The crowd burst into cheers and applause as the last faded away, and bells at nearby Westminster Abbey pealed a noisy farewell to their neighbor.
    — Jill Lawless, The Seattle Times, 21 Aug. 2017
  • The service was interrupted at least twice by emergency alerts pealing from cellphones scattered throughout the congregation.
    — David Montgomery, New York Times, 14 July 2019
  • The trumpets and horns, facing off on opposite sides of the ensemble, created an energetic, pealing, antiphonal effect in the final hornpipe.
    — Elaine Schmidt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8 Apr. 2018
  • The bell now resides at the Presbyterian church, pealing electronically rather than through physical ringing.
    — Laura Bednar, cleveland, 2 Dec. 2019
  • In hushed towns like Locorotondo and Martina Franca, whitewashed lanes curve unexpectedly, church bells peal away the hours, and olive trees cast ever longer shadows onto dusty squares.
    — Rob Crossan, Condé Nast Traveler, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Early risers and those late to bed reaped rewards in Washington on Friday as the pre-dawn hours crackled with lightning and pealed with thunder, providing an atmospheric overture to one of the landmarks of our summer.
    — Martin Weil, Washington Post, 22 July 2023
  • As the car carrying him departed the police station, a photographer captured another indelible image, of the former Prince slumped in the back seat, wide-eyed and slack-jawed—the boy for whom the chimes once pealed looking very much like a man for whom the bell now tolls.
    — Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2026

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