1
as in hurried
acting or done with excessive or careless speed
when the theater doors opened, there was a pell-mell rush for the best seats
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in chaotic
lacking in order, neatness, and often cleanliness
pell-mell piles of books everywhere in the professor's library
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in frantically
in a confused and reckless manner
tossed stuff pell-mell into the dorm room
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in hastily
with excessive or careless speed
ran pell-mell down the road to get help
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of pell-mell
Andy Kroll,
ProPublica,
18 Oct. 2025
The sight of Musk swinging a chainsaw onstage at a conservative conference captured the pell-mell approach, not to mention the brutality, of the billionaire’s plan to bring the federal government to heel.
—
Andy Kroll,
New Yorker,
17 Oct. 2025
What could slow the pell-mell stock market advance of artificial intelligence?
—
Larry Light,
Forbes.com,
27 Aug. 2025
People ran pell-mell outside, sped away in cars with no clear destination, went to church, or just phoned the police or radio station to hyperventilate.
—
Nicolas Rapold,
airmail.news,
23 Nov. 2024
Abe and Mary are part Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara, part George and Martha, part the old vaudevillians George Burns and Gracie Allen, all running together pell-mell toward the Copacabana.
—
Chris Jones,
New York Daily News,
12 July 2024
Administration officials don’t see this situation as similar to October 2022, when the intelligence community saw a significant possibility Putin might use tactical nuclear weapons to avert a collapse of Russia’s front lines in Ukraine and prevent a pell-mell retreat.
—
David Ignatius,
Washington Post,
21 June 2024
Only a few of them stopped with remainder racing pell-mell through the intersection as approaching cars on Charles braked abruptly.
—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
25 Apr. 2024
Ultimately, the more naturalistic second half — which has a realistic set with chairs and tables, delivered in a clunky black-out transition by intrusive stagehands — gets as sharp and loud as the pell-mell sounds-and-lights first half.
—
Christopher Arnott,
Hartford Courant,
12 Apr. 2024
Adverb
The sight of Musk swinging a chainsaw onstage at a conservative conference captured the pell-mell approach, not to mention the brutality, of the billionaire’s plan to bring the federal government to heel.
—
Andy Kroll,
ProPublica,
18 Oct. 2025
The sight of Musk swinging a chainsaw onstage at a conservative conference captured the pell-mell approach, not to mention the brutality, of the billionaire’s plan to bring the federal government to heel.
—
Andy Kroll,
New Yorker,
17 Oct. 2025
What could slow the pell-mell stock market advance of artificial intelligence?
—
Larry Light,
Forbes.com,
27 Aug. 2025
People ran pell-mell outside, sped away in cars with no clear destination, went to church, or just phoned the police or radio station to hyperventilate.
—
Nicolas Rapold,
airmail.news,
23 Nov. 2024
Abe and Mary are part Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara, part George and Martha, part the old vaudevillians George Burns and Gracie Allen, all running together pell-mell toward the Copacabana.
—
Chris Jones,
New York Daily News,
12 July 2024
Administration officials don’t see this situation as similar to October 2022, when the intelligence community saw a significant possibility Putin might use tactical nuclear weapons to avert a collapse of Russia’s front lines in Ukraine and prevent a pell-mell retreat.
—
David Ignatius,
Washington Post,
21 June 2024
Only a few of them stopped with remainder racing pell-mell through the intersection as approaching cars on Charles braked abruptly.
—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
25 Apr. 2024
Ultimately, the more naturalistic second half — which has a realistic set with chairs and tables, delivered in a clunky black-out transition by intrusive stagehands — gets as sharp and loud as the pell-mell sounds-and-lights first half.
—
Christopher Arnott,
Hartford Courant,
12 Apr. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pell-mell
Adjective
-
But for some reason the powers that be have decreed artificial intelligence a civilizational imperative, requiring the hurried construction of swarms of data centers, on Earth and in space.
-
Right now, decisions are being made in a hurried, contradictory fashion.
Adjective
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By building circuits whose states naturally fluctuate with this environmental heat, thermodynamic computing turns an otherwise stochastic and chaotic feature of nature into an incredibly fast, ultra-low-energy calculator.
-
The combat that follows is intimate, chaotic, and bloody.
Adverb
-
The Melodies of the Danube itinerary connects Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, and the Wachau Valley coherently rather than frantically.
-
Mount Baldy made headlines in 2013 when a 6-year-old boy was suddenly swallowed by the dune, prompting rescues to frantically dig him out.
Adverb
-
The Russians have hastily re-fortified the city with new air defence towers, each with a mobile Pantsir anti-aircraft vehicle hoisted on to it.
-
This is another entry that seems hastily done, insufficiently explained.
Adjective
-
Instead, Mahan and his wealthy Silicon Valley backers talked themselves into a rushed and premature campaign that was never remotely competitive.
-
As immigration officers arrested her six weeks ago, through tears and a rushed goodbye, Maria de Jesus Estrada Juarez had a request for her daughter.
Adjective
-
Interviews for the statewide candidates are done now via questions from the entire convention, a potentially messier proposition.
-
More vehicles on the road means more potential for complex, multi-vehicle collisions and messier disputes over who caused what.
Adverb
-
Those misses rarely occurred in season two, but three episodes into this season, the bat is flying wildly around the stadium, bonking people in the head in a freak mass-casualty bat-event.
-
The good news is that right now, only the looming IPOs of Anthropic, which will be wildly oversubscribed, and OpenAI, which will be far more tepid, stand in the way of the next run for the market, as the coffers seem to be replenishing.
Adverb
-
As the party raged on LACMA’s campus, hundreds of parade participants hurriedly prepared for their debuts in the corners of nearby streets and parking lots.
-
If another family attempts to invade that space, they are hurriedly pushed away by loud squawking and aggressive flying.
Cite this Entry
“Pell-mell.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pell-mell. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
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