riddled

verb

past tense of riddle
1
as in drilled
to make a hole or series of holes in several signs along the highway were riddled by buckshot

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in suffused
to spread throughout the newspaper exposé revealed a gaming commission that is riddled with corruption

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 riddled Critics have accused the program of being riddled with fraud and abuse. — Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2026 If more work is completed but that work is riddled with errors, productivity isn’t improving. — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 1 Oct. 2026 Kunkel was found guilty in 1995 for the brutal 1986 murder of Gilbert Fassett, whose body was riddled with more than 100 stab wounds. — ABC News, 21 Sep. 2026 Photos shared with the jury during the Miami trial showed Moïse’s body riddled with a dozen high-caliber bullets. — Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 14 Sep. 2026 Soon, an Israeli checkpoint comes into view, where soldiers stand watch from the balconies of homes riddled with shrapnel. — Zeena Saifi, CNN Money, 3 Sep. 2026 There were respected former Metro homicide detectives Brent Becker and Dan Long, both gone gray, who had carried the burden of the unsolved murder, one riddled with conflicted characters on all sides. — John L. Smith, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2026 But even that case was riddled with conspiracy theories, including one that accused Simpson’s son Jason of killing his stepmom and her friend. — Addie Morfoot, Variety, 28 Aug. 2026 Gardner remembers watching the film, in which Freeman’s Principal Clark turns around a New Jersey school riddled with crime, drugs and low test scores. — Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune, 24 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for riddled
  1. drilled
  2. suffused
  3. pierced
  4. penetrated
  5. punched
  6. permeated
  7. punctured
  8. flooded
Verb
  • José Ramírez reached on an infield single to start the eighth and DeLauter drilled a double off losing pitcher Tyler Wells, putting runners at second and third.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 13 Oct. 2026
  • Santos and others had drilled with limited results but couldn’t replicate the American formula.
    — Jordan Blum, Fortune, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of drilled
Verb
  • This is a book suffused with beauty, but climate emergency is its undercurrent.
    — Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 19 Sep. 2026
  • After setting her wildly popular debut The Tiger's Wife in a Balkans suffused with myth and magic, the author turned in subsequent books to the Old West and a city redolent of New York.
    — Colin Dwyer, NPR, 4 Aug. 2026
Definition of suffused
Verb
  • The sound of jackhammering in the Horsches’ backyard pierced the otherwise quiet street Wednesday afternoon.
    — Danny Freeman, CNN Money, 11 Oct. 2026
  • Neighbors in the area say the bullets pierced parked cars, trash cans, even the bedroom window of someone blocks away.
    — Stephen Swanson, CBS News, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of pierced
Verb
  • The Biden administration designated Tren de Aragua as a transnational criminal organization in 2024 following requests from Republicans who said the group’s members have penetrated the southern border.
    — Anna Giaritelli, The Washington Examiner, 15 Oct. 2026
  • My recent Hartford Courant oped, described how OpenAI agents broke out of their test sandbox and as a coordinated group (swarm) penetrated Hugging Face, a research platform used by AI developers.
    — John Caruso, Hartford Courant, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of penetrated
Verb
  • As for the crack, well, that happened by accident when heavy equipment punched through a concrete wall and unintentionally punctured the sphere, company officials told The Mountaineer.
    — Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Ordinary except, of course, for that time humans punched it, opening the door for the Hera mission to explore the previously unremarkable rocks.
    — Meghan Bartels, Space.com, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of punched
Verb
  • The potential double jeopardy argument permeated pretrial court hearings, with prosecutors suggesting the defense was using delay tactics to invoke double jeopardy.
    — Kara Scannell, CNN Money, 9 Oct. 2026
  • That has, from my standpoint, permeated the organization, and that’s what everybody talks about right now.
    — Noor Lobad, Footwear News, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of permeated
Verb
  • Grill the potatoes, cut sides down first, then flip with tongs, until golden brown, crispy on the edges, and easily punctured by a thermometer probe.
    — Candy Hom, AJC.com, 10 Oct. 2026
  • At stake are large payments the state receives as part of the compact, which the Tribe could suspend if its monopoly on sports betting is punctured.
    — Gray Rohrer, Sun Sentinel, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of punctured
Verb
  • The grand staircase was covered in 6 inches of ice and the basement was flooded with 4 feet of water.
    — Adam Harrington, CBS News, 16 Oct. 2026
  • While outside spending in support of Paxton has flooded the Texas airwaves with ads, Talarico's campaign itself has outpaced Paxton's in fundraising from donors eager for Texas to forgo its solidly Republican title.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of flooded

Browse Nearby Words

riddle
riddled
riddled (out)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Riddled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/riddled. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 16
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All