How to Use thud in a Sentence

thud

1 of 2 noun
  • The book hit the floor with a thud.
  • I heard a heavy thud on the roof.
  • The ball landed with a thud.
  • The news of Lamar's killing fell on me with an aching thud.
    — Trymaine Lee, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Aug. 2025
  • Rapp, up on Taft Point, heard two thuds.
    — Nick Paumgarten, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
  • Soon enough the sharp cracking sound will turn to a dull thud.
    — Farokh Talati, Bon Appétit, 3 Feb. 2023
  • The shot lands with a thud on the field, in sync with turning heads.
    — Zoe Bahjat, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Some of the gags, like some of the actors, land with a bit of a thud.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Sound art is light on the ground where granite and bronze can land with a thud.
    — Blake Gopnik, New York Times, 18 Aug. 2023
  • Tracer rounds lit up the night sky, with the thud of blasts heard in the videos.
    — Jon Gambrell, ajc, 24 Feb. 2023
  • There is then a loud thud, followed by silence.
    — Chris Spargo, People.com, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Muffled thuds are heard, and the crying stops.
    — Ava Kofman, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Above her, the nightingale hit the tree trunk with a dampened thud.
    — Hazlitt, 19 Nov. 2025
  • But their attempts at slapstick and self-aware jokes land with a dull thud.
    — Courtney Howard, Variety, 11 Nov. 2021
  • The teen's uncle heard a loud thud and rushed to the shed to check on the two brothers.
    — Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 6 May 2026
  • When the last clasp was undone, Rusty fell face first to the floor with a great thud.
    — Manuel Muñoz, Literary Hub, 11 Sep. 2025
  • Yet what should have been cause for celebration was met with a thud.
    — Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2023
  • With a thud, Butler’s 6-foot-6 frame hit the floor.
    — Evan Webeck, Mercury News, 30 Nov. 2025
  • Instead of a sharp, clicky noise, the button produces a soft thud.
    — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 16 Jan. 2022
  • The scene landed with a thud and caught a ton of flak after the film’s release.
    — Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 13 July 2021
  • As the event approaches, though, those efforts may land with a thud.
    — Laura He, CNN, 31 Jan. 2022
  • The offense started fast but finished with a thud.
    — Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, 15 Sep. 2025
  • Then the big cat lunges forward and slams its sizable paws against the window with a thud.
    — Travis Hall, Field & Stream, 31 Jan. 2024
  • The rope — which is tied to a shopping cart full of tools, a pillow and clothes — lands with a thud.
    — Elena Bruess, San Antonio Express-News, 13 Oct. 2021
  • The thud of drones is quickly washed over by the crashing of waves — calm and restoring.
    — Zareen Syed, Chicago Tribune, 8 Aug. 2025
  • The last-place Mets opened their nine-game road trip 5-2 and closed it with a thud.
    — Cbs New York Team, CBS News, 10 May 2026
  • The stack tilted, then dropped in one piece before striking the ground with a heavy thud.
    — Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 24 Feb. 2026
  • Some bring popcorn and snacks, and some snap selfies as the thud of airstrikes echo in the distance.
    — Zeena Saifi, CNN Money, 5 Oct. 2025
  • Non-sterling objects produce a dull thud.
    — Tessa Cooper, Better Homes & Gardens, 10 June 2026
  • His head hitting the hardwood with a thud only four days later.
    — Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2022

thud

2 of 2 verb
  • The ball thudded against the side of the house.
  • My heart begins thudding in time with her step.
    — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 9 June 2026
  • There were trays of madeleines and a stage with thudding speakers.
    — Alison Griswold, Quartz, 3 July 2019
  • Here’s where the treadmill picks up and our steps start thudding on the track.
    — Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2025
  • But there's substance to this car beyond the way the doors thud home when they're shut.
    — Don Schroeder, Car and Driver, 3 Jan. 2023
  • The subwoofers thud like mortar fire landing in the back seat.
    — Dan Neil, WSJ, 15 Jan. 2021
  • Some place where the days were days and the nights fell with thudding certainty.
    — Literary Hub, 17 June 2026
  • Boots thudded against hardwood and then started up the stairs.
    — Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 15 Apr. 2026
  • Distant thuds and the sound of revving engines can be heard as the footage pans wildly.
    — Matthew Mulligan, NBC News, 8 June 2023
  • Much of it was also kept to thud tackling, where players are only wrapped up, not brought to the ground.
    — Joey Kaufman, Orange County Register, 15 Apr. 2017
  • For many who had already seen the full image, the shaking ground was enough to still evoke that thudding noise.
    — Mika McKinnon, Smithsonian, 4 Dec. 2017
  • In terms of appeal beyond the faithful, this edition of this great even thudded like a ball against a wall.
    — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 21 Aug. 2017
  • The darkness soon erupted with machine-gun fire, thudding bazookas and something else.
    — David Wharton, Los Angeles Times, 22 June 2023
  • The mantra is set against the kind of thudding club beat that defined the earliest phases of her career.
    — Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 2 May 2026
  • The tiny ultralight thudded and bounced but remained gamely intact, then came to a stop.
    — Caroline Paul, Outside Online, 11 July 2018
  • Boots thudded down the dungeon hallway, the rhythmic beat of several guards’ steps.
    — David Canfield, EW.com, 17 Oct. 2019
  • His chip was perfectly placed for Mina, who thudded the header home from about 5 yards out.
    — Joel Petterson, New York Times, 25 June 2018
  • The cheerleaders bound up and down the field to the sound of football players’ helmets thudding against each other.
    — Jennifer Bolton, Houston Chronicle, 23 Aug. 2019
  • The latest version kicks off with a moody set piece before a gun shot and thudding drums make way for a beat that sounds like a drowning beeper.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
  • As Brown broke free on a fast break, his errant alley-oop pass intended for Tatum thudded off the backboard.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 26 Nov. 2019
  • But the data center surge could come to a sudden, thudding halt if those big companies do not soon see a return on their investment.
    — Joel Mathis, TheWeek, 2 July 2026
  • Flights across the Middle East were disrupted, and air defense fire thudded over Dubai.
    — Dallas Morning News, 1 Mar. 2026
  • Police tape cordoned off the scene where fire and police vehicle lights flashed and helicopter blades thudded overhead.
    — Arkansas Online, 27 Nov. 2025
  • Kershaw stranded the runners when Contreras thudded a curve into the ground.
    — Andy McCullough, latimes.com, 13 June 2019
  • Police tape cordoned off the scene, and fire and police vehicle lights flashed and helicopter blades thudded overhead.
    — Alanna Durkin Richer, Fortune, 27 Nov. 2025
  • David Stearns’ pitching staff failed in the second half of the season, and his trade-deadline acquisitions thudded.
    — Tim Britton, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2025
  • The protest hub in downtown Beirut thudded with music from a half-dozen different stages as if to compete with the city’s famous nightclubs.
    — Vivian Yee, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2020
  • As in the passage where Aster beats Hirut, certain words recur (split, spin, bloom, awkward, frantic), and hearts tend to pound and thud a lot.
    — Namwali Serpell, New York Times, 26 Sep. 2019
  • This music is often so simplistic—tenth-grade emo-thirst-trap-core with yearning synths, thudding drums, and maybe a lick of guitar—that a machine could do it too.
    — Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 25 June 2026
  • That naturalistic, lo-fi approach might play just fine were Maxine not saddled with a heavy, thudding cancer arc.
    — Richard Lawson, IndieWire, 7 Sep. 2025

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