RED ALERT Synonyms: 39 Similar and Opposite Words

red alert

noun

Definition of red alert

as in watch

the state of being constantly attentive and responsive to signs of opportunity, activity, or danger the paparazzi were on red alert for sightings of the hot new Hollywood couple

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of red alert Italy’s Health Ministry placed all 27 cities monitored under its national heat surveillance system on red alert Thursday — the first time this year the entire network has been under the highest warning level simultaneously. — ABC News, 6 Aug. 2026 Sunday’s stage through the Massif Central was won by Mathieu van der Poel, out-sprinting a small breakaway group, having been shortened by 30km due to a ‘red alert’ heatwave in the region. — Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 13 July 2026 The center on Saturday also issued the first red alert for rainstorms of the year, according to state broadcaster CCTV. — Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2026 Three-quarters of France, encompassing tens of millions of people, was put under a red alert for extreme heat on Thursday and Friday as the mercury topped 40 C (104 F) in some locations, including in Paris. — Kirsten Grieshaber, Fortune, 27 June 2026 See All Example Sentences for red alert

Recent Examples of Synonyms for red alert

Noun

Still, there’s a kind of hip, comfort food aspect to the entire enterprise that keeps it an easy, if slightly cluttered and overlong watch.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2026
In less time than that, the salesperson came back with my three watches and just gave them to me.

— Ticked Off, The Orlando Sentinel, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of watch

Noun

For now, the consensus among Wall Street’s economists is less alarm than watchfulness.

— Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 7 Aug. 2026
But the book’s ruminative watchfulness is unsuccessfully conjugated in this overly sedate play with music, which has the feel of a song cycle, though sung by the fine cast with gorgeous, lonely sorrow.

— Brian Seibert, New Yorker, 19 June 2026

Definition of watchfulness

Noun

The alerts have piled up, with cyclospora occupying much of the attention this year, as the parasitic infection gave explosive diarrhea to people in 48 states.

— Dian Zhang, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2026
Rescuers were on high alert for more flooding from a new lake that formed high up in the Himalayan mountains after the initial floods Wednesday.

— Niranjan Shrestha, Chicago Tribune, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of alert

Noun

To achieve this, the locus coeruleus continuously alternates between tonic activity—governing baseline arousal and alertness—and brief phasic bursts that focus attention on critical events.

— Julian Hayes II, Forbes.com, 23 Aug. 2026
During the campaign, candidates are in a state of constant alertness.

— Max Taves, Mercury News, 13 Aug. 2026

Definition of alertness

Noun

In her depiction of the exhausting vigilance this reality required, through a second-person voice cannily implicating her reader, Rankine created a new language to identify a problem as old as the United States.

— Charles Finch, The Atlantic, 28 Aug. 2026
Mental health can change quickly, so constant vigilance is important.

— Helen Carefoot, Flow Space, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of vigilance

Browse Nearby Words

redacts

red alert

red-blooded

See all Nearby Words

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Style

“Red alert.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/red%20alert. Accessed 31 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of red alert

noun

Example Sentences

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