How to Use fathom in a Sentence

fathom

1 of 2 noun

• The water here is five fathoms deep.
• My father laughing like a storm several fathoms under a sea’s surface.
  — Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 11 May 2022
• By this time two hundred fathoms of line had been carried spinning through the chocks, with an impetus that gave back in steam the water cast upon it.
  — Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2025
• Crew members measuring the depth of the river would take what are known as soundings in 6-foot increments called fathoms.
  — Trevor Hughes, USA Today, 31 May 2026
• At this stage in a player’s development, the ceiling looks unlimited and the floor looks fathoms deep.
  — Andy McCullough, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2026
• Captain Cook filled his logs with notes on the tide, on the time the ebb began each day, the force of the current, the fathoms of water, or lack of water, beneath his ship.
  — Erin McKittrick, Alaska Dispatch News, 15 Sep. 2017
• Dropping 10 fathoms down, below the green waves of the Gulf and back in time to this prehistoric world amounts to a sort of time traveler’s journey.
  — AL.com, 25 June 2017
• Kaaronen is a kayaker and woodworker who makes his own paddles—basing their length on a traditional measurement of his fathom plus his cubit.
  — Bymichael Price, science.org, 1 June 2023
• That impulse, growing out of one pivotal song, eventually pointed the way to the fathoms of Ocean, the group’s new album, their seventh, which debuts Friday.
  — Nancy Kruh, PEOPLE.com, 15 Nov. 2019
• Time traveling below the waves Dropping 10 fathoms down, below the green waves of the Gulf and back in time to this prehistoric world amounts to a sort of time traveler's journey.
  — Ben Raines, NOLA.com, 25 June 2017
• But in today’s world of restrictions on size, quantity and season, releasing reef fish has become part of our new reality—as are the challenges of ensuring postrelease survival for an animal pulled up from 20 fathoms.
  — Popular Science, 11 Feb. 2020

fathom

2 of 2 verb

• The idea struck me as hard to fathom.
  — Lila Shroff, The Atlantic, 18 June 2026
• The man noted the large sum was hard to fathom.
  — Karina Tsui, CNN Money, 25 Sep. 2025
• What never seems to get old are moves that are hard to fathom.
  — San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Oct. 2021
• That would have been hard for most people to fathom a week ago.
  — Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 5 July 2026
• There was a strange light in her eyes that Aisha couldn’t fathom.
  — Literary Hub, 7 Jan. 2026
• No one with an ounce of sense could fathom crashing through this roof.
  — Charlie Dent, CNN, 23 Jan. 2023
• Reed still can’t fathom the final stat line from the first round.
  — Joe Arruda, Hartford Courant, 1 Apr. 2026
• That’s a pretty long way to fall—one most of us can’t even fathom.
  — Tori Latham, Robb Report, 3 Jan. 2023
• The reason isn’t hard to fathom.
  — Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 18 Feb. 2026
• These are distances hard to fathom.
  — Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Apr. 2026
• At first, her despair is a little hard to fathom.
  — Brandy Jensen, New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2026
• Many could not fathom that human beings could do such things.
  — Karen Kramer, Variety, 27 Feb. 2026
• These next weeks and months will be demanding in ways that are hard to fathom.
  — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2020
• In some cases, these systems achieve a scale that’s hard to fathom.
  — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, 19 Apr. 2017
• Maple and her husband couldn’t fathom a reason why.
  — Ishani Desai, Sacbee.com, 10 May 2026
• The couple couldn’t fathom how their lives changed so quickly.
  — Joe Mozingo, latimes.com, 3 Sep. 2017
• His legacy will be cast in a permanence that’s hard to fathom.
  — Dallas News, 22 Dec. 2022
• Ewers can make all the throws, some that others at this level might not even fathom.
  — Nick Moyle, San Antonio Express-News, 17 Dec. 2021
• There are other factors, too, that make a mid-major run hard to fathom.
  — Matt Baker, New York Times, 21 Dec. 2025
• The goal is to be at the top of the mountain, but not many can fathom what that looks like or even how to get there.
  — Nishith Rastogi, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2023
• Mere mortals like us can't fathom how the gods spend their teenage downtime, after all).
  — Kayleigh Roberts, Marie Claire, 19 June 2021
• Tell me, please, that there is room for optimism in what from my vantage point is hard to fathom.
  — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 3 Sep. 2022
• Some liked to have them on hand, and others couldn’t fathom not boiling eggs themselves.
  — Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 14 Feb. 2026
• Democrats are still in shock about that, and can’t fathom why so many Latinos are pro-recall.
  — Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2021
• The level of wealth maintained by unnamed oil tycoons is more than most of us can even fathom.
  — Jack Fitzgerald, Car and Driver, 13 Apr. 2023
• But then, a lot about San Francisco is hard to fathom these days.
  — Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 Apr. 2022
• The human tragedy that would take place in those intervening years is hard to fathom.
  — Abigail Tracy, The Hive, 4 May 2017
• Just as the future of climate disasters is hard to fathom now.
  — Seth Borenstein, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Sep. 2020
• Just as the future of climate disasters is hard to fathom now.
  — Seth Borenstein, chicagotribune.com, 9 Sep. 2020
• More important is the large-scale disruption of lives, which would be hard to fathom.
  — Michael Smolenscolumnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 June 2022