How to Use rapt in a Sentence

rapt

adjective
  • The children sat rapt as the puppets danced.
  • The students listened with rapt attention.
  • From the minute his 8-inch heels click across the stage, the crowd is rapt.
    — Sonaiya Kelley, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2023
  • Every eye is rapt for the next three to eight seconds.
    — Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 5 Apr. 2026
  • Here are 10 of the songs that held us rapt throughout the year.
    — Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 19 Dec. 2024
  • The place is packed and the audience is rapt for the matinee.
    — Peter Marks, Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2022
  • Way up in the rafters, Juan Perdomo was rapt.
    — Max Klaver, Miami Herald, 8 Nov. 2025
  • Thankfully, the academy seems to have been just as rapt as the rest of us were.
    — Washington Post, 13 July 2021
  • Trust me, the audience is always rapt at our summits.
    — Rick Berke, STAT, 14 May 2026
  • His invention was born of a childhood rapt by the beauty of an atlas.
    — Dan Zak, Washington Post, 7 Apr. 2023
  • Joe is more than the sum of his ambitions, and life, the movie reminds us, is more than a rapt nightclub crowd.
    — Justin Chang Film Critic, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2020
  • More than once, the theater vanishes, leaving only a singer and a rapt crowd.
    — Shania Russell, EW.com, 27 Apr. 2025
  • As a light rain baptized the rapt crowd that remained, Willie gazed into the great beyond.
    — Deborah Sengupta Stith, Austin American Statesman, 21 Sep. 2025
  • Jackie listened, rapt in the blow-by-blow, holding Jase by the shoulders.
    — Brendan Quinn, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2025
  • Grim stuff, but the dropout, Strasberg, sat rapt at every performance.
    — Jesse Green, New York Times, 28 Nov. 2023
  • Inside the courtroom, Depp’s fans were rapt by his appearance.
    — Victoria Bekiempis, Vulture, 12 Apr. 2022
  • Female jurors watched with rapt attention, some gasping in shock.
    — Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2026
  • At the bookstore, Ó Tuama read from his book in front of a rapt audience.
    — Eliza Griswold, The New Yorker, 5 Dec. 2022
  • The songs shined broken down to their spare elements, bringing the rapt audience close to tears.
    — Lily Moayeri, SPIN, 2 July 2024
  • Orkney was having one of its rapt pastoral hours, the afternoon sun fashioning a world of pure green and blue.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
  • But my screening of Train Dreams was pretty much totally rapt.
    — Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 31 Jan. 2025
  • Visitors were rapt in this section and in the one on the rise of al-Qaeda and bin Laden.
    — Brian T. Allen, National Review, 11 Sep. 2021
  • After the sixth song, Smyers could no longer contain his glee and finally paused to speak to the rapt crowd.
    — Nancy Kruh, PEOPLE.com, 16 Aug. 2021
  • If Musk’s Fort Knox livestream does happen, the world will watch in rapt attention.
    — Dave Birnbaum, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2025
  • Some of us even become rapt enthusiasts of the very things that had earlier repelled us.
    — David Denby, New Yorker, 23 May 2025
  • Those sentiments were loudly welcomed as the band felt its way through the album, the audience rapt with each song.
    — Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 15 Sep. 2024
  • Holmes walked slowly to the stand before a rapt courtroom filled with spectators and jurors, all wearing masks.
    — CBS News, 19 Nov. 2021
  • The character’s rapt audience, however, looks at him with a mix of pity and regret.
    — David Sims, The Atlantic, 4 Nov. 2025
  • Mark Hamill made his pitch for the Harris-Walz ticket to a rapt audience.
    — Debra Utacia Krol, The Arizona Republic, 11 Oct. 2024
  • Manuel Alarcon, her father, was seated in the crowd, clasping his hands in rapt attention.
    — Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rapt.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: