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
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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
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1
as in frantically
in a confused and reckless manner
tossed stuff pell-mell into the dorm room
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2
as in hastily
with excessive or careless speed
ran pell-mell down the road to get help
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of pell-mell
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
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
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
Ministry is not nearly as proficient as Chad Stahelski’s John Wick 4 or Matthias Schweighöfer’s Army of Thieves, but the pell-mell combat scenes are consistently cartoonish.
—Armond White, National Review, 19 Apr. 2024
America saw a pell-mell downsizing of gas-guzzling vehicles and a simultaneous ramping up of imports of fuel-efficient Japanese cars.
—Jim Krane, Fortune, 12 Oct. 2023
The brokers surged out of the exchange, stumbling pell-mell over each other in the general confusion, and reached their respective offices in racehorse time.
—Mickey Butts, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Sep. 2023
Adverb
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
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
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
Ministry is not nearly as proficient as Chad Stahelski’s John Wick 4 or Matthias Schweighöfer’s Army of Thieves, but the pell-mell combat scenes are consistently cartoonish.
—Armond White, National Review, 19 Apr. 2024
America saw a pell-mell downsizing of gas-guzzling vehicles and a simultaneous ramping up of imports of fuel-efficient Japanese cars.
—Jim Krane, Fortune, 12 Oct. 2023
The brokers surged out of the exchange, stumbling pell-mell over each other in the general confusion, and reached their respective offices in racehorse time.
—Mickey Butts, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Sep. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pell-mell
Adjective
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And the hurried pace of the deportations has ignored due process, experts and advocates say.—
Savannah Kuchar,
USA Today,
10 June 2025
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The stereotype of the hurried retail investor making split-second decisions based on little more than a hunch has been confirmed by groundbreaking academic research.—
Boaz Sobrado,
Forbes.com,
30 May 2025
Adjective
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He was reinstated after a chaotic week that included a mass employee revolt and a brief stint at Microsoft.—
Beatrice Nolan,
Fortune,
20 June 2025
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More than a decade ago, a Reuters investigation concluded that Iran's ayatollah also controlled a massive financial empire built on property seizures in the chaotic years after the 1979 revolution, when many Iranians fled overseas.—
Kim Hjelmgaard,
USA Today,
19 June 2025
Adverb
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Aid workers said different departments frantically drafted their own lists of awards to keep or restore, but no one seemed to be looking at the big picture.—
Amy Schoenfeld Walker,
New York Times,
22 June 2025
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In the footage, Usopp was pacing his kennel, frantically leaping at the walls.—
Alice Gibbs,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 June 2025
Adverb
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The budget was hastily passed in the last two days of the legislative session to meet a June 1 deadline.—
Elaine Mallon,
The Washington Examiner,
16 June 2025
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The United States has already seen what happens when a major weather catastrophe arrives shortly after a president hastily rearranges FEMA.—
Zoë Schlanger,
The Atlantic,
11 June 2025
Adjective
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As for her glam, the jewelry designer tossed her hair back into a messy bun with strands of hair to frame her face.—
Julia Teti,
Footwear News,
17 June 2025
-
Lummis said the Banking Committee will attempt to avoid the same messy, public bartering as lawmakers turn their attention to the CLARITY Act, an even broader bill to set rules for digital assets.—
David Sivak,
The Washington Examiner,
17 June 2025
Adverb
-
That means property taxes can vary wildly even inside the same state.—
Kelly Phillips Erb,
Forbes.com,
21 June 2025
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Babymetal Mohegan Sun Arena, 1 Mohegan Sun Blvd., Uncasville The wildly popular Japanese kawaii metal band Babymetal — the trio of Su-metal, Moametal and Momometal — are on tour with Black Veil Brides and Bloodywood.—
Christopher Arnott,
Hartford Courant,
21 June 2025
Adjective
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This momentary pause, this saving interruption of the headlong, breathless trajectory of rape or murder, admitted a kind of compassion, pity, even tenderness, halting injustice in its tracks.—
Sarah Beckwith,
New Yorker,
26 May 2025
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But swirling around it are immigration restrictions, headlong and haphazard reductions in Federal spending and a separate but related confidence shock weighing on consumer behavior.—
Michael Santoli,
CNBC,
22 Mar. 2025
Adverb
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All of it wild-caught.—
Amy Drew Thompson,
orlandosentinel.com,
14 Aug. 2020
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Our first stop is in a wild-looking stretch 200 yards south of the railroad tracks and State Street.—
Paul A. Smith,
Journal Sentinel,
2 Jan. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Pell-mell.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pell-mell. Accessed 25 Jun. 2025.
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