How to Use lightning in a Sentence

lightning

1 of 2 noun
  • The doctor told me the uv of the lightning of the stage did it.
    Todd Spangler, Variety, 6 Nov. 2023
  • The thunder came with the lightning; the beast was right on top of you.
    Rich Cohen, Rolling Stone, 26 Sep. 2023
  • Piper’s voice struck the hall like a bolt of lightning.
    Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 6 Nov. 2023
  • Then, Franck Boli’s left foot struck the ball like a bolt of lightning.
    oregonlive, 1 Apr. 2023
  • The next day, its shares fell 60%, sparking a lightning-speed run on the bank.
    Kathleen Pender, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Mar. 2023
  • The lightning bolts are still used as a sign of white supremacy.
    Aria Jones, Dallas News, 3 Aug. 2023
  • At this time, the sky grew dark and was filled with thunder and lightning.
    Catherine Duncan, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Feb. 2024
  • The symptom that had brought her there was a lightning bolt-like pain in her head.
    Fiorella Valdesolo, Vogue, 26 Oct. 2023
  • The flash of lightning and roar of thunder were seconds apart.
    Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Apr. 2023
  • Bear in mind, a tent does not protect you from lightning.
    Star-Telegram Bot, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Mar. 2024
  • Just as if there’s a lightning storm at an outdoor event.
    Steve Knopper, Billboard, 20 Oct. 2023
  • The thing about catching lightning in a bottle is that the glow lasts only so long.
    Lizzy Goodman, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2023
  • Many depicted a heart with a lightning bolt, but not all.
    Stephanie Kuzydym, The Courier-Journal, 2 Jan. 2024
  • Saturday’s game at the Rose Bowl has been postponed by the threat of flooding and lightning.
    Staff Writer follow, Los Angeles Times, 24 Feb. 2023
  • The blue, white, red, and black sweater features Bowie's signature lightning bolt on each arm and his name spelled out on the back.
    Brittany Talarico, Peoplemag, 16 Mar. 2023
  • And as Krishnan pointed out, that’s around the same odds as getting struck by lightning.
    Trisha Pasricha Md, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Aug. 2023
  • If a bolt of lightning upends the supply of a good, then its price will certainly rise.
    Kevin A. Hassett, National Review, 1 Dec. 2023
  • One camera shot video, and the other had a lightning sensor to shoot still photos.
    Kevin Ambrose, Washington Post, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Our early ancestors must have craned their necks in awe when a lightning bolt lit up the night sky.
    Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 20 Dec. 2023
  • The season's final moments showed smoke breaking through the cracks of the Upside Down and the sky filling with red lightning.
    Dana Rose Falcone, Peoplemag, 19 Feb. 2024
  • The car is struck by lightning — and EW has an exclusive preview of what happens when the 118 arrives to help.
    Patrick Gomez, EW.com, 3 Mar. 2023
  • In 2020, a late-summer dry lightning burst sparked scores of fires, turning a so-so season into the state’s worst on record.
    Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2024
  • The air horn sounded again at 4:22 p.m. as another set of storms arrived, bringing heavy rains and the threat of lightning.
    CBS News, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The burst of snow is often accompanied by strong winds and even lightning.
    Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 10 Jan. 2024
  • The strongest storms could bring damaging straight-line winds, hail, lightning and heavy rain.
    Leigh Morgan, al, 13 Aug. 2023
  • The main risk outside lightning and rain is isolated strong winds.
    Dan Stillman, Washington Post, 22 Apr. 2023
  • But the game is currently under a weather delay with lightning in the area.
    Safid Deen, USA TODAY, 3 Aug. 2023
  • But a few minutes later, another crash of lightning came in the area, halting play for the second day in a row.
    Joe Freeman, oregonlive, 5 June 2023
  • If someone is struck by lightning, the cause of death or injury is obvious.
    Ashley Ward, STAT, 16 Aug. 2023
  • Residents reported lightning flashes in the sky as snow piled up on the ground.
    Paul Duginski, Los Angeles Times, 24 Feb. 2023
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lightning

2 of 2 verb
  • It’s both sweet and hot: There is lightning in her food.
    Nick Rallo, Dallas News, 5 Feb. 2021
  • The game was delayed by lightning with 5:15 left in the first quarter.
    cleveland, 28 Aug. 2021
  • The speed at which games load will also be lightning fast.
    Gieson Cacho, chicagotribune.com, 9 Nov. 2020
  • The main storm threats would be lightning, brief heavy rain and wind damage.
    Washington Post, 25 May 2021
  • The 5-foot-6 guard, who is lightning quick, is one of the rare players in the game who can make an impact on both ends of the court.
    Doug Feinberg, courant.com, 4 Apr. 2021
  • There’s a lot left to learn about lightning itself, too.
    Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Sep. 2020
  • That’s about the chance of being struck by lightning at some point in your lifetime.
    Michael Hiltzik, Star Tribune, 7 Nov. 2020
  • The 5-foot-6 guard, who is lightning quick, is one of the rare two-way players in the game who can make an impact on both ends of the court.
    Kristen Davis, cleveland, 5 Apr. 2021
  • The Clear Fire started by lightning last week and had grown to more than 9,500 acres on Monday.
    Tess Williams, Anchorage Daily News, 28 June 2022
  • The 5-foot-6-inch guard, who is lightning quick, is one of the rare two-way players in the game who can impact contests on both ends of the court.
    BostonGlobe.com, 3 Apr. 2021
  • Each year, more than 200 people are killed by lightning in the country.
    Washington Post, 5 Aug. 2021
  • Cleveland’s Caldwell was once struck by lightning on the mound.
    Marc Bona, cleveland, 7 Oct. 2020
  • Hundreds of those tress are believed to have been burned in that fire, which was sparked by lightning last month.
    Aya Elamroussi, CNN, 20 Oct. 2021
  • Regardless, the field will line up by class with the DPi cars starting at the front, rain or shine (but not lightning).
    Dave Kallmann, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7 Aug. 2021
  • That’s about half as likely as getting struck by lightning in a year.
    William Petri, The Conversation, 13 Apr. 2021
  • The blaze, which was sparked by lightning on Aug. 30, was 15% contained, according to the center.
    Allison Prang, WSJ, 13 Sep. 2022
  • Each sport is lightning fast, and his experience with each feeds the rest.
    Ethan McDowell, BostonGlobe.com, 19 May 2022
  • The complex was made up of three fires started by lightning on July 7.
    Gillian Flaccus, Star Tribune, 19 July 2021
  • That's still lightning speed compared with other projects in the region.
    Washington Post, 4 July 2021
  • The pain starts on the roof of your mouth and within an instant feels like lightning bolts bouncing inside your skull.
    Washington Post, 20 July 2021
  • In seventy-two hours, the state was struck by lightning eleven thousand times.
    Dave Eggers, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2020
  • Not quite the odds of winning the Powerball and being hit by lightning on the same day, but not much better, either.
    Bobby Nightengale, The Enquirer, 27 Sep. 2021
  • Play was halted by lightning just before 2 p.m. with nine players on the course.
    Randy Jennings, Dallas News, 16 May 2021
  • There will also be lightning deals throughout the day, when certain items will be on sale for a very brief few hours.
    Alexis Rhiannon, Allure, 27 Nov. 2020
  • In the last two weeks of June, 12 new fires started by lightning after a system of storms moved through Arizona.
    Audrey Jensen, The Arizona Republic, 5 July 2021
  • That comes to less than three-hundredths of a percent, or about the chance of being struck by lightning at some point in your lifetime.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 23 Mar. 2021
  • Two flawed, heartbroken men are struck by lightning at the same moment.
    Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 12 Jan. 2022
  • Ackley shared an auction for a tractor that was struck by lightning this year.
    NBC News, 14 Oct. 2021
  • At least two buildings appear to have been struck by lightning as the severe storms were moving through.
    Joe Taschler, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7 Sep. 2021
  • The Tamarack fire was sparked by lightning in the Mokelumne Wilderness on July 4 and at first, only a single tree was ablaze.
    Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 25 July 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lightning.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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