How to Use stammer in a Sentence

stammer

verb
  • He stammered an excuse and fled.
  • Valentina tells Carol, who then stammers over her own words.
    — Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Sep. 2025
  • Sure, the weaker part of me will hustle along and stammer out apologies on arrival.
    — James Parker, The Atlantic, 11 Feb. 2022
  • The paramedics stammered, thinking they were being scolded for being too close.
    — Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 4 Mar. 2025
  • Hahn makes a winning klutz, stammering and bumping into things.
    — Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 15 May 2017
  • Members of the audience stammered in response and some shook their heads in video from the board meeting.
    — Nathan Solis, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2023
  • The young actor broke down in tears before stammering out his thank yous to the Venice jury.
    — Alex Ritman, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Sep. 2023
  • Daddy was just helping mommy look for broken light bulbs,' my husband stammered.
    — Charlotte Hilton Andersen, Redbook, 11 Sep. 2017
  • What at first looks like a lifeless brown grid begins to vibrate; thin lines stammer their way from one side of the canvas to the other.
    — Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2023
  • Probst glides through his dialogue for the day in a single take, without stopping or even stammering.
    — David Canfield, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • The fountain stammers and falls, motion-activated, playing to the crowd.
    — Karl Kirchwey, The New York Review of Books, 13 Nov. 2025
  • Otherwise, the couple’s awkward, stammering meet-cute is pure Woody Allen.
    — Armond White, National Review, 5 Apr. 2024
  • When Freeze was asked about the talent gap between Auburn and some of the the leaders in the league, he was left tiptoeing and stammering.
    — Ainslie Lee | [email protected], al, 24 July 2023
  • Hansen would then make a dramatic entrance and interrogate the men, who would often stammer and bumble through the encounter before leaving.
    — Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 27 May 2026
  • Boys were depicted as socially awkward, blushing, stammering, and accident-prone, while girls were giggly and boy-crazy.
    — Michael Cart, Smithsonian, 7 May 2018
  • In that conversation, recorded by investigators, Jones stammered and did not give a clear answer.
    — Pauline Repard, sandiegouniontribune.com, 8 Mar. 2018
  • Her future husband was among the musicians leading the bossa nova movement, using a style known as violão gago, or stammering guitar.
    — Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 6 June 2023
  • But their exit plan goes awry, leaving the guests, in an extremely awkward confrontation, to stammer through a vague explanation of all the little things that have felt wrong since their arrival.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Feb. 2022
  • The Democrat still seems a bit unsettled to my eye — pausing, occasionally stammering over his words, peering down, scribbling notes.
    — Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2024
  • At another moment, Biden stammered through a response about southern border security.
    — Ramsey Touchberry, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 28 June 2024
  • Jimmy Stewart never was, stammering, humble appearances to the contrary.
    — Rondi Adamson, WSJ, 24 Aug. 2017
  • Shortly after the afternoon newscast, competing points of views on what Morris said while stammering during the newscast hit social media.
    — Stephanie Toone, ajc, 27 Jan. 2020
  • Leonard modulates her tones to capture the many other characters, including the subtly stammering Claudius, and does it so deftly that there is no confusion about who is speaking when.
    — Katherine A. Powers, Washington Post, 18 July 2024
  • Louis storms off after these revelations, and Armand, furious and terrified, follows him out of the room, stammering excuses.
    — Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 30 June 2024
  • Barry Yeoman, a man with a lifelong stutter, suggests that while society mostly views a stutter as a disability, stammering really isn’t the problem at all.
    — Krista Stevens, Longreads, 8 Nov. 2019
  • As Alceste, Elliott Kashner fumes and stammers with disgust, often while dangling a couplet’s final word for comic effect.
    — Nelson Pressley, Washington Post, 5 June 2019
  • This leads to Gregory asking about Lord Anderson, but before Violet has even stammered her way through two words, Benedict whips in like a bat outta hell.
    — Christina Grace Tucker, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Yet Boudreau, who won more than 400 games and eight division titles in nine seasons as the coach of Washington and Anaheim, stammered when asked if Hitchcock was right about experience.
    — Pat Borzi, New York Times, 22 Feb. 2017
  • What seemed episodic in 2017 now comes across as a taut dramatic arc, the text sometimes stylized — characters tend to stammer repetitions of key lines — but the storytelling clear, lean and always supported by the agile music.
    — New York Times, 15 May 2022
  • Grant balances stammering awkwardness and self-deprecation with charm and warmth, while Roberts blends steely, intimidating resolve with down-to-earth levity and emotional vulnerability.
    — Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 27 Feb. 2023

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

Last Updated: