Synonyms
Examples of wail in a Sentence
Yousur Al-Hlou, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2023
On Saturday, as air raid sirens wailed nonstop, Israel scrambled to open bomb shelters, call up thousands of reservists and redirect dozens of units to the southern border.
—Miriam Berger, Washington Post, 7 Oct. 2023
As a member of One Direction and solo artist, Louis Tomlinson has seen more tears and wailing than a veteran midwife.
—Lars Brandle, Billboard, 26 Oct. 2023
About 3,000 revelers were still awake around 6:30 a.m. Saturday when sirens wailed, cutting off the psy-trance music pulsing in a desert field near the Gaza border.
—Alyssa Lukpat, WSJ, 10 Oct. 2023
While this might not seem like a big deal, anyone who’s experienced a hungry infant screaming in their ear knows that every second counts from the first hunger wails to filling those little bellies.
—Dorian Smith-Garcia, Parents, 18 Sep. 2023
Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars were streaming into the parking lot, sirens wailing.
—Maggie Prosser, Dallas News, 14 Sep. 2023
The occasional sound of somebody wailing punctuates the near silence.
—Stuart Ramsay, NBC News, 11 Sep. 2023
His latest tech house weapon is loaded with simply cool sounds, from the skittering synth to the growling bassline to a hectic build and a drop that’s equal parts wailing vocal and car alarm.
—Katie Bain, Billboard, 6 Oct. 2023
Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023
As everyone watched the show, lightning bolts seemed to come down when the music would swell to a climax, underscoring Adrienne Lenker’s impassioned wails and giving the whole night a mystical feeling.
—Julia Carmel, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2023
The piercing wail of ambulances, their red and blue lights flashing, announced the arrival of Samira Ayoub and her three granddaughters: fourteen-year-old Rimas, twelve-year-old Talin, and the youngest, Layan, just ten years old.
—Rania Abouzeid, The New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2023
But where road and city meet, romance ends — in twisted metal, the wail of emergency vehicles and, far too often, blood and fire and death.
—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 26 Oct. 2023
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
The wails of an agonized mother cut through the room.
—Emily Opilo, Baltimore Sun, 13 Sep. 2023
The two move in together to care for the baby, whose haunting wails fill the tiny and decrepit apartment.
—Claudia Guthrie, ELLE, 29 Aug. 2023
His voice, a blend of sad wail and smooth croon, also endures as a distinctive, undiminished sound.
—Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 26 June 2023
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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.
Word History
Verb
Middle English weilen, waylen, perhaps modification (influenced by Middle English weilawei wellaway) of Old Norse væla, vāla to wail; akin to Old Norse vei woe — more at woe
Verb
14th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1
Noun
15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2
Articles Related to wail
Dictionary Entries Near wail
Cite this Entry
“Wail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wail. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.
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More from Merriam-Webster on wail
Nglish: Translation of wail for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of wail for Arabic Speakers
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