How to Use pierce in a Sentence

pierce

verb
  • A scream pierced the silence.
  • The bullet pierced his lung.
  • The needle pierced her skin.
  • The bullet pierced through his lung.
  • The needle pierced into her skin.
  • And who the f--- pierces a 12 year old?
    — Catherine Santino, People.com, 2 Sep. 2025
  • And who the f--- pierces a 12 year old?
    — Desiree Anello, PEOPLE, 24 May 2026
  • Use the tines of the fork to pierce the top of each half moon.
    — Jeanmarie Brownson, charlotteobserver, 19 June 2018
  • The pain was no longer piercing.
    — Baltimore Sun Staff, Baltimore Sun, 11 Feb. 2026
  • His words seemed to pierce the heavens.
    — Scott Simon, NPR, 21 Feb. 2026
  • Will give our blood, not oil)—would pierce through the still of the night.
    — Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, Quartz India, 17 Sep. 2019
  • My laugh is loud, if not to say piercing.
    — Megan McArdle, Washington Post, 31 May 2026
  • Something must have pierced his chest wall.
    — Kansas City Star, 22 May 2026
  • The sniper’s round hit him in his left arm and then pierced his left lung.
    — Ian Shapira, Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2023
  • Those words cut through the cocaine fog and pierced his heart.
    — Brad Schmitt, The Tennessean, 2 Aug. 2025
  • The girls’ screech now high and piercing like a hawk’s.
    — Literary Hub, 14 Apr. 2026
  • Scrub the potatoes and pierce them with a knife in a few places.
    — Cathy Barrow, The Denver Post, 20 Sep. 2019
  • From the rear, the arrow would pierce a lung or maybe the heart.
    — Mike Combs, Outdoor Life, 18 June 2025
  • Jones was then shot in the face by a bullet that pierced both cheeks.
    — John Lynch, Arkansas Online, 23 May 2025
  • She had been stabbed by a knife that pierced the left side of her abdomen.
    — Sean Emery, Oc Register, 1 June 2026
  • But the silence is pierced by the crushing of rock.
    — Julie Watson, Los Angeles Times, 17 May 2026
  • Sebring was shot in his left armpit, piercing his lung.
    — Stephanie Nolasco, FOXNews.com, 9 Aug. 2025
  • The limb pierced the windshield of the pickup truck.
    — Matt Schooley, CBS News, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Bake in the oven until the flesh is tender when pierced with a knife.
    — Karen Berner, Good Housekeeping, 18 July 2018
  • The man was not shot, but bullets pierced his home, Thomas said.
    — Cory Shaffer, cleveland, 7 Nov. 2019
  • Raha was one of them, killed by a bullet that pierced her lungs.
    — Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 6 Feb. 2026
  • The Tlingits fought back, but their weapons could not pierce its skin.
    — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 6 July 2020
  • With luck, in a few months, the screams of their hungry owlets will pierce the night air.
    — Kate Wong, Scientific American, 13 Feb. 2026
  • One thing could pierce it with a drill, and that thing is an octopus.
    — Literary Hub, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Rabenn had no real idea how to pierce the veil of the blockchain's anonymity.
    — Andy Greenberg, WIRED, 25 Oct. 2022

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