How to Use riot in a Sentence

riot

1 of 2 noun
  • The news about the election caused a riot in the city.
  • The woods are a riot of color in the autumn.
  • The movie was an absolute riot.
  • A lot of property was damaged in the recent riots.
  • This is what caused the riot at your first show?
    — Matt Thompson, SPIN, 4 May 2026
  • The best way to incite a riot at a rock club?
    — Siran Babayan, Los Angeles Times, 18 May 2026
  • The riots start later that night.
    — Sara Stridsberg september 15, Literary Hub, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Where did the 'One riot, one Ranger' quote come from?
    — Marley Malenfant, Austin American Statesman, 4 Mar. 2026
  • To be able to listen to music with all of you is gonna be such a riot.
    — Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 27 Apr. 2026
  • That summer, we were put on the street to handle riots.
    — New York Times, 22 Jan. 2026
  • This script does not need a riot to operate.
    — Donathan L. Brown, The Conversation, 24 June 2026
  • The result is a riot of blooms that gives the trees a run for their money.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Japan in the late ’60s was a fractious place with riots.
    — Stuart Miller, Oc Register, 17 June 2026
  • While the song played, a huge screen showed scenes of the riot at the Capitol.
    — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2024
  • Scores of armed guards in riot gear formed a tunnel as they were led inside the prison.
    — Nick Penzenstadler, USA Today, 9 Sep. 2025
  • But that wasn’t the case in regard to the Capitol riot.
    — Judy L. Thomas, Kansas City Star, 29 Jan. 2026
  • Over the years, the prison was the scene of serious fires and inmate riots.
    — Craig Shoup, Nashville Tennessean, 21 Oct. 2025
  • In any event, the pro-Palestinian riot was much worse.
    — Peter Lucas, Boston Herald, 13 Oct. 2025
  • The voice in the recording is tense, fuzzy and hard to make out amid a riot of background chatter.
    — Rick Jervis, USA Today, 13 May 2026
  • There’s green, and then there’s Hawaii green, a riot of greenesses.
    — Tom Bentley, The Mercury News, 26 Mar. 2024
  • In 1983, riots swept through the state prisons.
    — James Verini, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2026
  • There were deadly riots again in 2019.
    — Kate Bartlett, NPR, 25 June 2026
  • Officers in full riot gear flooded in as rocks and bricks and bottles flew.
    — Jhair Romero, Houston Chronicle, 5 May 2026
  • Folk music blared from a fenced area surrounded by rows of riot police in full gear.
    — Jovana Gec, Los Angeles Times, 24 May 2026
  • Folk music blared from a fenced area surrounded by rows of riot police in full gear.
    — CBS News, 23 May 2026
  • The Army has described the kind of device found as a riot control hand grenade.
    — Chantal Da Silva, NBC News, 5 June 2023
  • The verdict over the murder of a white British teenager sparked riots.
    — Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 3 June 2026
  • Each spring, tulips burst across the city in a riot of color, drawing visitors from around the world.
    — Staff, USA Today, 8 June 2026
  • Bark, blooms, fruits, and seeds all play a role, while fall foliage adds a riot of seasonal color.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 3 Mar. 2026
  • Bark, blooms, fruits, and seeds all play a role, while fall foliage adds a riot of seasonal color.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 9 Nov. 2025

riot

2 of 2 verb
  • Students rioted after their team lost the football game.
  • The crowd was angry and ready to riot, and turned over two police cars in the street.
    — al, 24 Sep. 2020
  • Detainees there have rioted, staged hunger strikes, and sewn their lips shut.
    — WIRED, 28 Feb. 2023
  • If a call like that went against Boston, Sox fans would riot.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 11 Oct. 2021
  • Others have seized on the message and offered their own calls to riot at malls.
    — Lorraine Longhi, azcentral, 31 May 2020
  • As time went on, the colonist mob grew and the mob rioted and attacked a British sentinel.
    — Fox News, 24 Feb. 2020
  • But Democrats encourage people to riot and protest in the streets.
    — Andrew Mark Miller, Washington Examiner, 1 Aug. 2020
  • The Stonewall riot 50 years ago is seen to have triggered the gay rights movement.
    — Brian T. Allen, National Review, 31 Aug. 2019
  • That year, all through Jerusalem, all through the Holy Land, there was rioting.
    — Cynthia Ozick, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Apr. 2023
  • As a matter of fact, the masses are rioting over the way he was written out of the series.
    — Ineye Komonibo, refinery29.com, 6 Mar. 2020
  • Police say men linked to a White supremacist group planned to riot.
    — Nicole Hemmer, CNN, 15 June 2022
  • Thousands more rioted outside the ground once the stadium’s doors were shut.
    — Matt Slater, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2026
  • Will there be rioting in the streets once audiences get some idea of how lousy Supergirl is?
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 26 June 2026
  • Those who were college-educated were just as likely as high school students to riot.
    — Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post, 9 Nov. 2023
  • Huge amounts of money are being paid to riot police and security forces.
    — Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Sep. 2020
  • Caught between the collapse of wages and the loss of land, peasants rioted across Europe.
    — Silvia Federici, Scientific American, 17 Apr. 2023
  • In the novel, the chemical reliance becomes so strong that when there is a shortage, the people riot.
    — Blaine Cooper, Star Tribune, 10 Apr. 2021
  • Others would riot and destroy their sites of incarceration; many would burn these buildings to the ground.
    — Scott W. Stern, Time, 15 May 2018
  • Morin had already dismissed the conspiracy to riot charge against the three on Thursday.
    — Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post, 2 June 2018
  • The crowd began to riot and five people were killed, many were injured and arrests in connection to the event continue.
    — Leada Gore | [email protected], al, 13 Jan. 2021
  • Authorities found that the group was planning to riot in several areas of downtown, not just the park.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2022
  • The group was apparently planning to riot at the event, and police have even received death threats since the arrest of these members.
    — Darreonna Davis, Forbes, 27 June 2022
  • Bolton also plans to tell lawmakers there was a lack of consensus about the reality of the threat leading up to riot.
    — Whitney Wild, CNN, 15 Apr. 2021
  • At this same time, the people of Germany are likely still rioting over the economic collapse.
    — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 6 Mar. 2020
  • Quentin Cash of San Diego quickly took him into custody on a charge of inciting to riot.
    — Merrie Monteagudo, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Apr. 2021
  • Poor people rioting in Walmart.
    — Joe Wilkins Published Mar 12, Futurism, 12 Mar. 2026
  • Francesconi said the government lacks evidence showing Bantista threw a rock or came to Portland to riot.
    — oregonlive, 22 Sep. 2020
  • Friday, police also arrested a 21-year-old woman on a felony charge of inciting to riot.
    — Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer, 25 Apr. 2026
  • Zakiya Courtney understands that the people who loot and riot during protests aren’t the protesters.
    — Amy Schwabe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10 June 2020
  • That evening, Minneapolis did not riot.
    — Literary Hub, 6 Feb. 2026

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