How to Use sentinel in a Sentence

sentinel

noun
  • Along the shoulder, ashen wisps of tree trunks stand sentinel like totem poles.
    — Lauren Frayer, latimes.com, 20 June 2017
  • Two enormous palm trees stand sentinel on either end of the pool, bare and brown.
    — Justin Torres, Los Angeles Times, 15 Dec. 2021
  • And yet, these satellites are also sentinels of a grim future.
    — Jon Gertner, Scientific American, 6 Jan. 2020
  • The nonsentinel males are culled, too (or kept and made into sentinels).
    — Gena Steffens, Smithsonian, 11 July 2019
  • Pine plantations stand sentinel along two-lane roads where cows graze next to one-room churches.
    — Chelsey Lewis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5 July 2018
  • Inside, an obelisk-like stalagmite stood sentinel atop a mound decked with moss and neon-green ferns.
    — Patrick Scott, WSJ, 13 Nov. 2018
  • Of all of them, the sentinel suites are undoubtedly one of my favorite places in the world.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 June 2026
  • Corkie putting the snake into the tub looks like the sentinels or the wire going into people’s pods.
    — Nick Newman, IndieWire, 1 June 2026
  • As time went on, the colonist mob grew and the mob rioted and attacked a British sentinel.
    — Fox News, 24 Feb. 2020
  • Rugged landscapes split by sharp mountains and dotted with scraggly brush, and the sentinel of the desert.
    — Kaely Monahan, The Arizona Republic, 16 Nov. 2021
  • In a bed like that, with those towering posts standing like sentinels at the corners, a girl would have room to dream.
    — Mary Schmich, chicagotribune.com, 16 Aug. 2019
  • The department is in the process of training guardians and sentinels for the upcoming school year.
    — Michael Williams, OrlandoSentinel.com, 21 May 2018
  • On a tower in the Brazilian rain forest, a sentinel scans the horizon for the first signs of fire.
    — Brian K. Sullivan, Fortune, 10 Aug. 2019
  • In Brazil, monkeys served as sentinels for the latest outbreak of yellow fever.
    — Mark Johnson, jsonline.com, 24 May 2017
  • Above the Agency house, a hundred yards away, Fort King’s sentinels scanned the area.
    — Literary Hub, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Like a sentinel, the church has witnessed the evolution of its community from atop a hill.
    — Syra Ortiz- Blanes, sun-sentinel.com, 22 Nov. 2021
  • This, we're told, is the sentinel—the meerkat responsible for scanning for predators.
    — Mary Holland, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Apr. 2018
  • The city’s Christmas tree, missing branches and all, stands sentinel over a park that is missing a few things too.
    — Steve Rubenstein, SFChronicle.com, 11 Dec. 2020
  • All around us, whining mosquitoes rise above the water's surface like sentinels.
    — Lale Arikoglu, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 July 2023
  • The gates are closed, but the icon stays lit up through the night — silently keeping sentinel over the ever-changing land of his people.
    — Simon Peter Groebner, Star Tribune, 23 July 2021
  • There, a half-mile trail opens to a stunning panorama, with a chimney rock standing sentinel over a lush green V of a canyon.
    — Washington Post, 24 Sep. 2021
  • The have been referred to as lakeshore sentinels, offering waypoints on water and markers on land, and come in all shapes and sizes.
    — Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press, 7 Aug. 2023
  • Offshore, seals bob like sentinels and kayakers skim the glassy surface—tracing the scalloped coastline.
    — Lewis Nunn, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
  • Among the bungalows, the family’s mint-green Queen Anne stood like an old sentinel.
    — Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 19 July 2021
  • The rebellion’s first target was a coastal fort, where Tacky’s forces shot a sentinel and seized a store of armaments.
    — Julian Lucas, Harper's magazine, 6 Jan. 2020
  • Bells are then honored as vital sentinels during floods, crying out that the barricades have given way.
    — Literary Hub, 20 May 2026
  • Like a canary in a coal mine, these sentinels would be the first to detect and react to danger, alerting neighboring crops.
    — Quanta Magazine, 16 Dec. 2013
  • The Hall of Famer’s life-sized statue stands sentinel at the front gates, and a short drive away is a highway bearing his name.
    — Dave Skretta, The Seattle Times, 13 Aug. 2017
  • Here and there, fire, wind, and flood would have broken the forest into a mosaic of old and new, grass and forest, shrubs and sentinels.
    — Literary Hub, 10 June 2026
  • Stand in the middle and you’ll be buffeted by rich vocal harmony spilling forth in waves from the blank sentinels that surround you.
    — Murray Whyte, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Aug. 2019

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