Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use agape in a sentence

20 example sentences · adjective, adverb, noun

Agape means in a state of astonishment, wonder, expectation, or eager attention; as with mouth hanging open. Example: “The word agape, "astonished" or "wide open," is a heteronym of agape, "Christian love."”

Examples of agape by meaning

adjectiveIn a state of astonishment, wonder, expectation, or eager attention; as with mouth hanging open.

  • There I stand, agape like any country bumpkin1923, Arthur Michael Samuel, “Roubiliac (1695-1762)”, in The Mancroft essays, page 159
  • That's all well and good; one can sit, agape, reading the copious liner notes to this or any Explorer record, but it's what's inside the jacket that counts.1980, Joel Flegler, Fanfare, volume 3, numbers 4-6, page 198
  • The restaurant staff and OTHER DINNER GUESTS watch, agape.1996, Lech J. Majewski with Julian Schnabel, Basquiat

adjectiveWide open.

  • He tries not to tear his victim's stockings, or whip too close to her stretched vulva, which shivers, unprotected, between thighs agape and straining, amid movements of muscle erotic, subdued, “monumental” as any silver memory of her body on film.1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
  • In the last frame, he throws back his head and wails, his mouth agape.1995 September 24, “Stop Me If Yov've Heard this One”, in Washington Post
  • With dropped jaws and eyes agape, a world beholds the blur of Michael Johnson1996 August 2, “Johnson can fly, and he does it without wings”, in Chicago Sun-Times

adverbIn a state of astonishment, wonder, expectation, or eager attention.

  • Three of us--two biologists and I--were crouched behind a huge boulder at the water's edge and staring agape as the largest bear I ever saw came toward us1987 June 26, “On the Prowl in Grizzly Country”, in Chicago Tribune
  • "This is Sammy 91," he told the two dozen tourists watching agape."2005 September 24, “Angry Surfers Say Cage-Diving Changes Great White's Way”, in Wall Street Journal
  • One features a science teacher looking agape at the camera which has caught him reading red-handed.2008 January 8, “Reading gets the glitzy treatment”, in BBC News

adverbOpen wide.

  • Its mouth yawned agape1911 January 7, “The Man-killer”, in Poverty Bay Herald
  • The bathroom door stood agape, and the peeling vinyl floor was bare.1996, Perri O'Shaughnessy, Invasion of Privacy, page 508
  • He glanced up into Richard's eyes, his own wide with wonder, his mouth hanging agape.2005, Terry Goodkind, Chainfire, page 427

More sentences with agape

  • The word agape, "astonished" or "wide open," is a heteronym of agape, "Christian love."From the entry heteronym
  • A human face, agape with awe, staring at an alien, a dinosaur, or the Ark of the Covenant?2017 November 16, Leah Schnelbach, “The Birth of Spielbergian: Close Encounters of the Third Kind at 40”, in Tor.com. From the entry Spielbergian
  • The men adopted agapetae (from the word agape), spiritual sisters or wives with whom they slept but did not have intercourse.2008, Richard Smoley, Conscious Love: Insights from Mystical Christianity, →ISBN, page 46. From the entry agapetae
  • McCoy is often portrayed in Trekfic as motivated by agape.2001 August 21, Dunyazad9 [username], “Subject: "Canon" (was Re: Who's on top?)”, in alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated (Usenet). From the entry Trekfic
  • Phoenix's finest watch the goings-on with jaws agape.1996 July, Bruce Sterling, “Is Phoenix Burning”, in Wired, →ISSN. From the entry goings-on
  • Once Renchit's "backgate" is battered open & hanging agape, it is no challenge at all to "treat" him to some not too friendly fisting!2008, The Hun [pseudonym; Bill Schmeling], Gohr, number 4, →ISBN, page 19. From the entry backgate
  • Mouths were agape on the announcement of England's starting lineup, the return of Keira Walsh appearing miraculous 10 days after she left the pitch on a stretcher in agony.2023 August 7, Suzanne Wrack, “England beat Nigeria on penalties to reach Women's World Cup quarter-finals”, in Katharine Viner, editor…. From the entry obituary
  • On the screen there was this creepy image: a giant head, mouth agape, with clawing hands reaching out of it, alienlike, toward the figure of a girl.2009 July 14, Melena Ryzik, “Curtain Down, Light the Lights!”, in New York Times. From the entry alienlike

Meaning of agape

  1. adjective In a state of astonishment, wonder, expectation, or eager attention; as with mouth hanging open.
  2. adjective Wide open.
  3. adverb In a state of astonishment, wonder, expectation, or eager attention.

Full definition of agape

Questions about agape in a sentence

How do you use agape in a sentence?
Agape is used as an adjective, adverb and noun. For example: “The word agape, "astonished" or "wide open," is a heteronym of agape, "Christian love."”
What is a short sentence with agape?
“Its mouth yawned agape”
What does agape mean?
Agape means in a state of astonishment, wonder, expectation, or eager attention; as with mouth hanging open.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: agape (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use agape in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/agape. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.