How to Use gut-wrenching in a Sentence
gut-wrenching
adjective-
The past week has been gut-wrenching for our town, like all the worst parts of the Bible at once.
—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 14 Jan. 2025
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Mixed drinks were a way of masking the gut-wrenching taste.
—David Reamer | Alaska History, Anchorage Daily News, 23 July 2023
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And so that was probably one of the more gut-wrenching cuts.
—Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 June 2023
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The irony of the trade is that Cortes and Williams surrendered the two most gut-wrenching home runs of the 2024 postseason.
—Daniel R. Epstein, Forbes.com, 30 Mar. 2025
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For the second straight year, Troy suffered a gut-wrenching loss in Week 3.
—Creg Stephenson | Cstephenson@al.com, al, 16 Sep. 2023
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And the gun sellers knew or should have known that these guns would lead to gut-wrenching murder.
—Rayna Reid Rayford, Essence, 18 July 2023
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The gut-wrenching feeling, the weight on his chest, and the lack of desire for anything became too much to bear.
—Anna Guaracao, BostonGlobe.com, 24 Aug. 2023
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Pair it with: The ’90s Berserk for gut-wrenching dark fantasy.
—Rafael Motamayor, Vulture, 4 June 2025
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After a gut-wrenching breakup, one of the biggest questions you might be left with is, Why?
—Jenna Ryu, SELF, 23 Sep. 2024
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The joy in the kids’ eyes will be a stark contrast to the gut-wrenching stares of less-privileged children on the nightly news.
—Chicago Tribune, 4 July 2025
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All of them have ended with gut-wrenching shots in the final eight seconds.
—Sam Cohn, Baltimore Sun, 17 Mar. 2025
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Democrats, for their part, are consumed by a gut-wrenching hope that Mr. Trump won’t be the nominee.
—Ken Bensinger, New York Times, 19 Jan. 2024
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This gut-wrenching loss came two nights after the Cougars fashioned a wild comeback of their own, from 14 down against Duke.
—Eddie Pells, Baltimore Sun, 7 Apr. 2025
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Those that know her say those losses, combined with the turmoil at 23andMe, must be gut-wrenching.
—Lila MacLellan, Fortune, 17 Oct. 2024
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That diary, along with lurid rape and torture videos, proved a gut-wrenching record of Lake and Ng's cruelty.
—Devan Stuart Lesley, Peoplemag, 17 Feb. 2023
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Whatever the reason, the casting adds so much more weight to Night of the Living Dead's gut-wrenching ending.
—James Grebey, Time, 20 June 2025
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Anaya and her husband were in a gut-wrenching position -- the fetus' heart was still beating, but couldn't be saved.
—Nadine El-Bawab, ABC News, 14 Dec. 2023
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All the crazy ups and the gut-wrenching downs that are high school, but mostly just this totally overwhelming feeling of awe for her and joy for me.
—Kayla Grant, People.com, 10 June 2025
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Here are 10 thoughts after the latest gut-wrenching defeat.
—Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune, 18 Nov. 2024
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Parry Punch posted this sweet but gut-wrenching photo of Ngannou and his son Kobe.
—Brian Mazique, Forbes, 19 Oct. 2024
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Hart’s brush against Coby White’s afro on a desperate three-point attempt sent White to the line for three free throws, handing the Knicks a gut-wrenching one-point loss.
—Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 19 Nov. 2024
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In the gut-wrenching wild-card playoff loss to the Cincinnati Bengals two seasons ago, backup Tyler Huntley was sacked twice and hit five times.
—Mike Preston, Baltimore Sun, 24 Apr. 2024
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Instead, the Beavers suffered a pair of gut-wrenching defeats, succumbing to back-to-back rallies by the Sun Devils.
—Joe Freeman, oregonlive, 24 Apr. 2023
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Any star will tell you the most gut-wrenching feeling is walking out of a playoff series, in a loss, while believing there was still more to give.
—Shane Young, Forbes.com, 19 June 2025
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Then, in the final few scenes, a gut-wrenching piece of news is delivered involving Jaja and ICE agents.
—Grace Tucker, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025
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Se7en's gut-wrenching plot twist will leave viewers with goosebumps, but here's where the real chills crawl up the spine: Denzel Washington passed on the part of David Mills.
—EW.com, 16 Oct. 2023
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Coming off a gut-wrenching extra-inning loss in Game 3, the Yankees came out swinging.
—Homero De La Fuente, CNN, 19 Oct. 2024
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Mom’s gut-wrenching message to parents after teenage son dies in twin brother’s arms.
—FOXNews.com, 4 Apr. 2025
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The Jayhawks' latest season-ending loss was gut-wrenching.
—ABC News, 22 Mar. 2026
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The recording of the call is harrowing and gut-wrenching as Denise Lee sobs and begs for her life.
—Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today, 18 Mar. 2026
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gut-wrenching.' 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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