How to Use serial in a Sentence

serial

1 of 2 adjective

• The pictures are numbered and arranged in serial order.
• Scientists made serial observations over a period of two weeks.
• How many serial killers is too many for a plot to bear?
  — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 11 Dec. 2025
• Things have gone from bad to worse for our serial killer hero.
  — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2025
• Things have gone from bad to worse for our serial killer hero.
  — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2025
• Was a serial killer on the loose?
  — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
• None of them are a serial killer.
  — Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 30 Dec. 2025
• All of them are about serial killers.
  — Literary Hub, 1 Apr. 2026
• The gods seem to be playing a sort of serial joke on him.
  — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
• When will the flood of serial killer dramas abate?
  — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025
• Black women don’t tend to be serial killers.
  — Yohana Desta, Rolling Stone, 23 Jan. 2026
• Fifth, work with judges to imprison serial shoplifters.
  — Bradley Tusk, New York Daily News, 18 Jan. 2026
• Like a serial killer taking over a town and leaving death in his wake.
  — The Indianapolis Star, 16 Mar. 2023
• Seeing a serial killer in his birthday suit can go a long way.
  — Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 18 Oct. 2025
• This will not be Cox’s first go at playing a serial killer.
  — Joe Otterson, Variety, 2 Apr. 2026
• But White Noise isn’t just about the brains of serial killers.
  — Literary Hub, 1 Apr. 2026
• Even more surprising is the fact that his victim was a serial killer.
  — Joan MacDonald, Forbes, 10 Feb. 2024
• And, believe it or not, serial killer Joe appears to not be at fault.
  — Meg Walters, Glamour, 10 Mar. 2023
• The show blurs what happens in real life and things that are only in the serial killer’s mind.
  — Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 6 Oct. 2025
• The movie told the story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
  — Peter White, Deadline, 22 Sep. 2025
• This is a character inspired by a serial killer cis man.
  — Marley Gotterer, Them., 18 Sep. 2025
• This is very on-point serial-killer behavior.
  — Erin Qualey, Vulture, 17 June 2026
• Meanwhile, the rest of the team is trying to catch an evil serial killer — for a second time.
  — Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 15 May 2026
• Palm turned them all away, making her story a white whale even in our era of peak serial killer content.
  — Carolyn Wells, Longreads, 14 Aug. 2023
• Chris Brown is a serial abuser.
  — Bobby Burack Outkick, FOXNews.com, 11 May 2026
• His work as the serial killer brought him his first nomination.
  — ABC News, 8 July 2026
• And a lot of things about serial killers get amplified in a way that can be dangerous.
  — Stephanie Nolasco, FOXNews.com, 8 Nov. 2025
• Turn off the lights, grab a blanket, and settle in with our picks for the best serial killer films ever made.
  — Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 9 June 2026
• Wallace seems like too much of a bloodhound to not notice that her partner is a serial killer.
  — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 27 Aug. 2025
• Did Ed Gein help catch serial killer Ted Bundy?
  — Jr Radcliffe, jsonline.com, 6 Oct. 2025

serial

2 of 2 noun

• There wasn’t a drama, a soap, a serial or a chat show that could do that.
  — Vanita Kohli-Khandekar, Quartz India, 22 July 2019
• The rankings are the lifeblood of a serial—and one that fails to rank highly enough over time can be cut.
  — Matt Alt, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
• There are thirty or so novels, countless short stories and serials, a string of hit plays.
  — Robert Gottlieb, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2019
• Holmes worked on many of the serial’s scripts and regularly put herself in harm’s way.
  — Elizabeth Weitzman, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Apr. 2023
• Cleophus is the second serial-killing suspect to be arrested in Phoenix in the past year.
  — Chris Harris, PEOPLE.com, 18 Jan. 2018
• Both movies are freestanding, non-serial, complete, and integral dramas that run about an hour and a half each.
  — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 24 Apr. 2017
• Justin’s serial dating continued well into the night, and the girls found out about date number four, thanks to the bartender.
  — Michelle Darrisaw, Southern Living, 10 Aug. 2017
• French Montana shared a snapshot posing with the serial fraudster aboard a private jet.
  — PEOPLE.com, 8 Feb. 2022
• Typically, this is the sort of terrain that would be covered by a vintage beat-cop serial, which gets us to the elephant in the room.
  — Luke Winkie, Rolling Stone, 19 Mar. 2023
• The serial will be available for online viewing through May 2021.
  — Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 19 Oct. 2020
• Weekly serials are compiled in paperback collections, called tankobon, that are sold in bookstores.
  — Matt Alt, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
• While only the first two episodes managed to survive the original live broadcast, the serial still went on to have a huge impact on science fiction.
  — William Worrall, Space.com, 15 July 2026
• Having the right size pan for each task means everything comes together at the same time, rather than cooking in serial and serving a lukewarm dinner.
  — Miami Herald, 3 Mar. 2026
• Long enough to develop an idea, short enough to focus on a single strand of plot, novellas (and serials) got the spotlight in almost every issue.
  — Tom Shippey, WSJ, 26 Apr. 2019
• Hopefully, this reboot will charm audiences in the same way that the first radio serial did back in the 1970s.
  — Andrew Liptak, The Verge, 24 July 2019
• The story unfolds over the course of 20 brief chapters, reflecting the rhythm of its original run as a serial, cliffhangers and all.
  — Penny Schwartz, sun-sentinel.com, 6 Oct. 2021
• Lest Dexter get too cocky about his own serial-killing prowess, Blessing knocks on his door at the most inopportune moment.
  — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 8 Aug. 2025
• Ghost is a serial-production, semi-customizable yacht, meaning owners can put their stamp on it.
  — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 21 Nov. 2025
• In 1996, he was cast to portray Cassadine for the serial, kicking off his soap-star career.
  — Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 1 Nov. 2023
• This fire, along with other lesser fires in the decade, led authorities to believe a serial arsonist was on the loose in Laurel.
  — Kevin Leonard, baltimoresun.com, 23 Apr. 2021
• In the new series, Bomer plays Michael, a loving father to a serial-killing high school girl and husband to a frustrated co-parent.
  — Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 13 Aug. 2021
• Though his presence loomed large in the world of comics, as his creations went mainstream, Lee became familiar to even those who’d never picked up a weekly serial.
  — Janelle Okwodu, Vogue, 12 Nov. 2018
• The story is like an old-fashioned film serial blown up to blockbuster proportions, set in a world that has dominated pop culture for almost 50 years.
  — Katie Walsh, Twin Cities, 23 May 2026
• Movies, especially science fiction serials, often told the same story.
  — Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 21 Apr. 2026
• The other two game-changers were and remain triumphs of recycling, of stripping ’30s and ’40s serials for parts, and speeding up the rhythms.
  — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 24 Aug. 2017
• Tuesday marked 37 years since Margaret delighted soap opera fans with a guest-starring turn on the beloved British serial The Archers.
  — Lanford Beard, PEOPLE.com, 23 June 2021
• Thanks to radio serials, TV shows, and movies, non-comic book readers became familiar with Superman lore.
  — Ken Makin, Christian Science Monitor, 9 July 2025
• Charley’s apparent distaste for serial killers may be a cover for her true nature — note the expression on her face when Dexter talks about the double life serial killers are forced to lead.
  — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 27 Aug. 2025
• From there, the troupe has tackled a diverse range of shows — full plays, one-acts, 10-minute plays, festivals, sketch comedy, works-in-progress, a musical and a serial — in spaces all over town.
  — Deborah Martin, San Antonio Express-News, 7 Jan. 2026
• Several companies have begun to supply bite-sized dramas and serials for venues like TikTok or Meta’s Reels.
  — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 2 June 2026