How to Use wail in a Sentence

wail

1 of 2 verb
  • A saxophone wailed in the background.
  • She wailed that the vacation was ruined.
  • The child started wailing after she stumbled and fell.
  • The room just was full of wailing.
    — Vanessa Etienne, PEOPLE, 24 Nov. 2025
  • Car alarms wailed in a parking lot.
    — Lizzie Johnson, New Yorker, 25 Apr. 2026
  • Cars, trains and ships sounded their horns and air raid sirens wailed.
    — NBC News, 4 Apr. 2020
  • And then there may be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
    — Peter J Reilly, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2025
  • Or had the full moon moved them to whirl and the animal to wail?
    — Lance Esplund, WSJ, 23 Nov. 2018
  • Kimiya wailed as the bio-andy moved toward the gaping hole.
    — Jeff Spry, Space.com, 26 June 2026
  • Others wailed and screamed, raising their arms in the air.
    — Angie Dimichele, Sun Sentinel, 17 Apr. 2026
  • One man, standing over the bodies of two young boys, wailed in grief.
    — Yousur Al-Hlou, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2023
  • Arrived wailing into this world as the fourth in a brood of eight.
    — Mitchell S. Jackson, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2023
  • Ill children sniffled and wailed.
    — James Verini, The Atlantic, 12 May 2026
  • The adults circled the young one who continued to wail from its high perch.
    — Mare Czinar, azcentral, 19 June 2018
  • Those left behind might fast alone in the mountains and wail and cut themselves.
    — Sterling Holywhitemountain, The New Yorker, 29 Mar. 2021
  • Three engines and a squad car showed up, sirens wailing and horns honking.
    — Chronicle Staff, SFChronicle.com, 24 Apr. 2020
  • One of the members even puts down his sax to wail a few songs with bell-like clarity.
    — Morena Duwe, Billboard, 11 Dec. 2019
  • In the background, several booms could be heard and an air raid siren began to wail.
    — Washington Post, 5 Mar. 2022
  • Nurses tended to patients outside in the dark as sirens wailed.
    — Paul Vercammen, CNN, 6 July 2019
  • Amid wailing sirens, residents and tourists alike will have to figure out what to do.
    — AZCentral.com, 23 July 2019
  • The shipwreck scene that opens the play is ear-splitting in its shrieking and wailing.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2023
  • Plus, who doesn’t want to see Buckethead wail away on guitar?
    — Jim Harrington, Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2026
  • Little Bernardethe wailed for three days and clawed at her mother’s breast.
    — Cindy Carcamo, latimes.com, 25 June 2018
  • The woman sobbed, too, wailing that the girls were her daughters and hugging them in her arms.
    — Washington Post, 14 June 2019
  • With sirens wailing, police and event volunteers rushed to tend to those caught in the cross fire.
    — Robert Moran, Philly.com, 27 June 2018
  • Snake Mom in the Sky, hand me a grimoire that will replace the urge to wail.
    — Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 2025
  • Another voice wails in the background.
    — ABC News, 28 Feb. 2026
  • As the sun set over Kyiv today, the air-raid sirens started to wail again across the city center.
    — Simon Shuster, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2026
  • When the tornado sirens wailed, everyone fled to the basement to wait it out.
    — The Indianapolis Star, 20 Apr. 2023
  • Babies can often be heard wailing as the candidate takes the stage.
    — Eren Orbey, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2019

wail

2 of 2 noun
  • But her tirade was cut short by the piercing wail of an air raid siren.
    — Chicago Tribune, chicagotribune.com, 2 June 2018
  • The wail of fire trucks can be heard as passersby stopped to record the scene.
    — Francie Ebert, NBC news, 16 May 2026
  • The wail of the sirens no longer triggers a rush for the shelters.
    — Kostiantyn Khudov, Washington Post, 1 Dec. 2022
  • His wails will break your heart, even if this might be the only way to keep him safe.
    — Shannon Carlin, refinery29.com, 30 Mar. 2020
  • But the voice of the group still manages to jump on top of bars and wail from time to time.
    — Staff Author, Peoplemag, 20 Dec. 2022
  • The wail of the siren ripped into our ears and propelled us onto the floor.
    — Kate Tsurkan, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2022
  • People judge others for the precise pitch of their wails.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025
  • These days, the wail of ambulance sirens never seems to fall silent.
    — New York Times, 23 Jan. 2021
  • There were wails from inside, and the air smelled of gunpowder.
    — Susannah George, Washington Post, 13 Nov. 2023
  • The woman’s wails could be heard as the honor guard gently closed the doors.
    — Mariam Khan, ABC News, 11 Feb. 2020
  • The woman’s wails pierced the night sky as a light mist started coming down.
    — Mariam Khan, ABC News, 11 Feb. 2020
  • From the basement’s inner depths came the echo of a newborn’s wail.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2022
  • But just hearing her wail had to have been difficult for the rest of you, right?
    — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 Jan. 2022
  • The noise is hard to talk over at full wail, but the sounds are comfortable at cruising speeds.
    — Frank Markus, Car and Driver, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Commotion muffled the sound, yet the wail managed to break through the noise.
    — Samantha Leach, Glamour, 3 Dec. 2019
  • The small hairs on the back of the neck stand up as the distinctive wail of the bagpipes begins.
    — Freep.com, 10 June 2022
  • Two sets of arms wrapped around me, more of his friends, holding me until my wails subsided.
    — Kimberly Bridson, Vogue, 14 Aug. 2025
  • An ambulance siren wails past, coming up from the river.
    — Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
  • The electric version starts the same, but that plaintive wail sounds more like a call to mischief.
    — Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Jazzy clarinet, piping flute, the wail of a sax — each instrument had its chance to shine.
    — Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel, 8 Dec. 2022
  • Temperance let loose a banshee wail.
    — Charna Flam, People.com, 25 Aug. 2025
  • The couple dozed like babies in the leaves—that cry, that wail, had become their sleep trigger.
    — Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2025
  • Others stand at the doors and wail, at times pounding on doors and walls while screaming to be released.
    — Dave Boucher, Freep.com, 13 Oct. 2022
  • But their loud wail, which can be activated via a mobile app, can be heard about half a mile away.
    — Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2026
  • The zoo said that sonograms had shown that this dog's unique wail is similar to the song of the humpback whale.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 31 Aug. 2020
  • The baby who was the product of that attack wails in his 8-year-old sister’s arms.
    — Washington Post, 5 July 2018
  • As the days passed, the wail of sirens to and from the hospital came ever more frequently.
    — Ian Johnson, The New York Review of Books, 4 June 2020
  • As the procession moved into the cemetery, the wail of an air-raid siren started.
    — Serhiy Morgunov, Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2022
  • The ear-splitting wails came from a little girl trying to get the star’s attention.
    — Baz Bamigboye, Deadline, 3 Dec. 2025
  • As mourners lowered the body into the sandy ground, a wail echoed across ancient tombstones.
    — Hana Salah, latimes.com, 16 May 2018

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