How to Use somnolent in a Sentence

somnolent

adjective
  • These days, Middle Caicos is a somnolent place.
    — Henry Wismayer, Travel + Leisure, 7 Jan. 2026
  • And then some kids get so sleepy and somnolent and difficult to wake up that they get put on a breathing machine.
    — Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press, 15 Nov. 2019
  • Often the challenge lies as much in bringing somnolent machines to life.
    — Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, 27 Feb. 2020
  • As the saline infusion nears completion, the client may become somnolent.
    — Seriously Science, Discover Magazine, 28 Oct. 2016
  • The Sunday crowd, which had been somnolent in previous Big Ten games, was juiced.
    — Rainer Sabin, Detroit Free Press, 5 Feb. 2023
  • Although her eyes are open and piercingly blue, there is something of a somnolent haze about her, like a girl who has not yet awakened to her adulthood.
    — Tom Teicholz, Forbes, 15 Sep. 2021
  • Democrats are walking around in some state of somnolent indifference about Joe Biden.
    — Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 26 June 2023
  • Returning to the somnolent complacency of years past is not an option.
    — Elbridge Colby, Foreign Affairs, 10 Dec. 2019
  • In baseball runs are precious things that break through the night's uncomplicated and somnolent haze like a lightning bolt.
    — Aj Willingham, CNN, 13 July 2019
  • One is the practice of taking very short breaks, or microbreaks, during the workday rather than — or even in addition to — a long, somnolent lunch break.
    — David Faris, TheWeek, 1 Jan. 2026
  • Bahnsen grew up reading Ditlevsen’s poems, and this one has a somnolent quality that lends itself to her dreamy, even cloudlike designs.
    — New York Times, 9 Mar. 2022
  • The site of Brown’s family house—which burned down a hundred years ago—was in the woods, up a somnolent arterial road named for Brown.
    — John Lahr, The New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2020
  • Now, handlers approached with the next round of sedation darts, followed soon by the somnolent march into metal crates for the drive north to Mswati airport.
    — New York Times, 9 July 2019
  • Suddenly changing gears from somnolent piano lines to driving propulsion and back again, the music has the blank moodiness of a score for a nonexistent film.
    — Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 16 May 2018
  • Instead, more than a month passed before Mueller’s somnolent objection finally leaked its way into public knowledge.
    — Kevin Baker, Harper's magazine, 19 Aug. 2019
  • During the primary season, Biden’s fundraising was atrocious and the enthusiasm level of his crowds ranged from tepid to somnolent.
    — Kyle Smith, National Review, 16 Apr. 2020
  • Here three people gather at the bedside of the somnolent d’Alembert, who triggers a four-way talkfest by giving voice to a wild, uninhibited fever-dream.
    — Dan Hofstadter, WSJ, 15 Feb. 2019
  • The injury has not deterred him from providing a boost for an otherwise somnolent Diamondbacks offense.
    — Andy McCullough, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2026
  • Neuroscientists have long had an explanation for our somnolent twitches.
    — Amanda Gefter, The New Yorker, 31 Aug. 2023
  • For a kid growing up between small-town Pennsylvania and the somnolent Warsaw of the late 1980s, this was potent stuff to dream with.
    — Jacob Mikanowski, Harper's magazine, 21 July 2019
  • The Herald Examiner building remained standing, albeit in a somnolent state.
    — Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2021
  • The state-monopoly BBC, though, was heavily censored and played a somnolent organ refrain at intervals throughout the day.
    — John Broich, Slate Magazine, 27 Mar. 2017
  • At an uncommon hour, when devoted nightcrawlers are switching from liquor to beer, and even the city that never sleeps slows to a semi-somnolent pace, the two fledgling men’s stars traded spectacular winners in Queens.
    — Jason Gay, WSJ, 8 Sep. 2022
  • In an otherwise somnolent campaign marked by little disagreement or rancor, the AfD’s campaign posters were inflammatory.
    — Griff Witte, Washington Post, 24 Sep. 2017
  • Which is why this opinion piece speculates that the spending effect of growth in the form of high demand for all things Swift and World Cup is a relative growth somnolent as opposed to an instigator.
    — John Tamny, Forbes.com, 20 June 2026
  • Addicted to oil wealth, Saudi Arabia has become a somnolent and spoiled society, with a squabbling royal family of some 7,000 princes.
    — Karen Elliott House, WSJ, 17 July 2018
  • Instead, America now has a system in which determined minorities routinely defeat somnolent majorities.
    — Alan S. Blinder, The New Republic, 22 Mar. 2018
  • Cliché upon cliché, The Magic of Belle Isle rests heavy on the considerable charm of its actors and the utterly somnolent predictability of the storytelling.
    — Will Leitch, Vulture, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Cliché upon cliché, The Magic of Belle Isle rests heavy on the considerable charm of its actors and the utterly somnolent predictability of the storytelling.
    — Will Leitch, Vulture, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Houston is an ascendant mid-major program with a legendary head coach who energized a somnolent fan base through suffocating defense, a team-first mentality and a roster of players overlooked or cast aside by college basketball’s big boys.
    — Mark Zeigler, sandiegouniontribune.com, 13 Mar. 2018

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

Last Updated: