How to Use violent in a Sentence

violent

adjective
  • The city has experienced an increase in violent crime in the past year.
  • She suffered a violent death in a car accident.
  • The patient suddenly became violent and had to be restrained.
  • The final scene was extremely violent.
  • The peaceful protest suddenly turned violent.
  • They witnessed a violent struggle between police and protesters.
  • He's not a particularly violent person.
  • By the end of the year, though, violent crime had picked back up.
    — Gregory S. Schneider, Washington Post, 4 Oct. 2023
  • All but two of the remains showed signs of violent deaths.
    — Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 5 June 2024
  • Or that he would be forced to fight for them in the face of violent threats and a hard shove outside the Capitol.
    — Cathie Anderson, Sacramento Bee, 6 Mar. 2024
  • This was not his first attempt to plan a violent event.
    — Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 5 Nov. 2024
  • The drones are now a lot more powerful and way more violent.
    — Claire Friedman, The New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2023
  • And while that might seem weird enough, the tilt itself may be evidence of the Milky Way’s violent past.
    — WIRED, 12 Nov. 2023
  • This all but confirmed Griner was caught in the crosshairs of the violent conflict the U.S has become involved in.
    — Shelby Denise Smith, Essence, 9 Aug. 2022
  • Such attacks have helped make health care one of the nation's most violent fields.
    — Time, 7 Aug. 2023
  • Such attacks have helped make health care one of the nation’s most violent fields.
    — Rebecca Boone, Anchorage Daily News, 7 Aug. 2023
  • But the rate of violent crime has been basically flat for the past decade.
    — Michael Smolens Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Mar. 2022
  • Can Noemí figure out the violent secrets behind the walls of High Place?
    — Emily Burack, Town & Country, 25 Jan. 2023
  • The set-up for the film is simple: A woman travels to a small town with the brother of her ex-boyfriend who was killed there in a violent tragedy.
    — Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Aug. 2024
  • The group also warned that the bill’s language doesn’t exclude some violent crimes.
    — Dustin Gardiner, San Francisco Chronicle, 10 Aug. 2022
  • Although most of the charges against Woody’s client were cleared, her record still contains an arrest for a violent felony.
    — Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel, 4 Dec. 2022
  • That story is one that paints him as a survivor of a violent partner.
    — Amy MacKelden, ELLE, 9 Mar. 2023
  • The ads target the state House Democrats over taxes and violent crime, as well as women’s and girl’s safety.
    — Julia Manchester, The Hill, 22 Apr. 2025
  • Ryan’s violent reaction to this scare sets off a chain of events and unearths secrets from the past.
    — Zac Ntim, Deadline, 16 Jan. 2025
  • Back in 1970, Lolita and a number of other whales were part of a violent capture from a pod in the Puget Sound near Seattle.
    — James Powel, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2023
  • Schaaf has urged the council to approve funding to hire more officers to help with the rise in violent crime seen in 2021.
    — Sarah Ravani, San Francisco Chronicle, 28 Feb. 2022
  • Nearly 50 percent of those housed by the jail are facing charges for violent crimes.
    — Michael Murney, Chron, 9 Sep. 2022
  • The violent turn of those protests in 2019 stymied President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda at the time.
    — Rick Noack, Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2022
  • On June 25, Monroe officers used a drone to track down a violent offender who had fled into a wooded area, police said.
    — Maia Nehme, Charlotte Observer, 1 July 2025
  • Before long, his life is plagued by a series of mysterious, sinister incidents that threaten to upend his success and bring about a most violent demise.
    — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 1 July 2025

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

Last Updated: