How to Use somnolent in a Sentence

somnolent

adjective
  • And then some kids get so sleepy and somnolent and difficult to wake up that they get put on a breathing machine.
    Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press, 15 Nov. 2019
  • The site of Brown’s family house—which burned down a hundred years ago—was in the woods, up a somnolent arterial road named for Brown.
    John Lahr, The New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2020
  • Often the challenge lies as much in bringing somnolent machines to life.
    Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, 27 Feb. 2020
  • For a kid growing up between small-town Pennsylvania and the somnolent Warsaw of the late 1980s, this was potent stuff to dream with.
    Jacob Mikanowski, Harper's magazine, 21 July 2019
  • Although her eyes are open and piercingly blue, there is something of a somnolent haze about her, like a girl who has not yet awakened to her adulthood.
    Tom Teicholz, Forbes, 15 Sep. 2021
  • Now, handlers approached with the next round of sedation darts, followed soon by the somnolent march into metal crates for the drive north to Mswati airport.
    New York Times, 9 July 2019
  • In baseball runs are precious things that break through the night's uncomplicated and somnolent haze like a lightning bolt.
    Aj Willingham, CNN, 13 July 2019
  • Bahnsen grew up reading Ditlevsen’s poems, and this one has a somnolent quality that lends itself to her dreamy, even cloudlike designs.
    New York Times, 9 Mar. 2022
  • Here three people gather at the bedside of the somnolent d’Alembert, who triggers a four-way talkfest by giving voice to a wild, uninhibited fever-dream.
    Dan Hofstadter, WSJ, 15 Feb. 2019
  • A year-and-a-half ago, the stylish boutique hotel Rest debuted in Plymouth, the somnolent but awakening gateway to Shenandoah Valley.
    Mike Dunne, sacbee, 2 Aug. 2017
  • Suddenly changing gears from somnolent piano lines to driving propulsion and back again, the music has the blank moodiness of a score for a nonexistent film.
    Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 16 May 2018
  • During the primary season, Biden’s fundraising was atrocious and the enthusiasm level of his crowds ranged from tepid to somnolent.
    Kyle Smith, National Review, 16 Apr. 2020
  • Compare this with the somnolent life of India’s developers.
    Andy Mukherjee | Bloomberg, Washington Post, 17 Feb. 2019
  • The state-monopoly BBC, though, was heavily censored and played a somnolent organ refrain at intervals throughout the day.
    John Broich, Slate Magazine, 27 Mar. 2017
  • At an uncommon hour, when devoted nightcrawlers are switching from liquor to beer, and even the city that never sleeps slows to a semi-somnolent pace, the two fledgling men’s stars traded spectacular winners in Queens.
    Jason Gay, WSJ, 8 Sep. 2022
  • On Saturday, Tiger Stadium could be downright somnolent for a kickoff at 11 a.m. local time.
    Edgar Thompson, orlandosentinel.com, 14 Oct. 2021
  • Addicted to oil wealth, Saudi Arabia has become a somnolent and spoiled society, with a squabbling royal family of some 7,000 princes.
    Karen Elliott House, WSJ, 17 July 2018
  • Instead, more than a month passed before Mueller’s somnolent objection finally leaked its way into public knowledge.
    Kevin Baker, Harper's magazine, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Outside Jordan, the queen’s Jackie Kennedy-like mystique helped raise Jordan’s profile, sometimes rattling the kingdom’s largely somnolent diplomatic corps.
    Laura King, Los Angeles Times, 6 Apr. 2021
  • The Herald Examiner building remained standing, albeit in a somnolent state.
    Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2021
  • A string of high-profile incidents involving somnolent truck drivers and railroad engineers have called attention to an emerging sleep disorder.
    James Hamblin, The Atlantic, 8 Aug. 2017
  • In an otherwise somnolent campaign marked by little disagreement or rancor, the AfD’s campaign posters were inflammatory.
    Griff Witte, Washington Post, 24 Sep. 2017
  • Houston is an ascendant mid-major program with a legendary head coach who energized a somnolent fan base through suffocating defense, a team-first mentality and a roster of players overlooked or cast aside by college basketball’s big boys.
    Mark Zeigler, sandiegouniontribune.com, 13 Mar. 2018
  • That may be partly due to cinematographer Nicholas Wiesnet's oppressively dark visuals (most of the story takes place at night), which tend to produce an unnecessarily somnolent effect.
    Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Jan. 2020
  • Instead, America now has a system in which determined minorities routinely defeat somnolent majorities.
    Alan S. Blinder, The New Republic, 22 Mar. 2018
  • Their long-somnolent town is suddenly encountering a group of international urbanites with gleamingly expensive and outlandishly new equipment: sophisticated farm machinery, spanking new mobile homes, Rolls Royces.
    Wendla McGovern, The New Republic, 12 Apr. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'somnolent.' 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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