Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use aghast in a sentence

21 example sentences · adjective

Aghast means terrified; struck with amazement; showing signs of terror or horror. Example: “I was aghast when the incident unfolded in front of me.”

Examples of aghast by meaning

adjectiveTerrified; struck with amazement; showing signs of terror or horror.

  • I was aghast when the incident unfolded in front of me.
  • And while the revellers stood aghast at the fury of the man, one more wicked or, it may be, more drunken than the rest, cried out that they should put the hounds upon her.1902, Arthur Conan Doyle., The Hound of the Baskervilles
  • Using his fingers, he dug an eyeball out of the fish, popped it in his mouth and swallowed it whole as we looked on, aghast.2003, Brian Herbert, “Xanadu”, in Dreamer of Dune, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 259

More sentences with aghast

  • I was aghast by what I saw.From the entry by
  • The political world is aghast at the electoral history that is in the making in Guyana today.2020 March 11, Yvonne Webb, quoting Winston Dookeran, “Frightening image for democracy in C'bean”, in Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, Port of…. From the entry Burnhamism
  • It's the cover story and they are aghast, downtown in newspaperland. .2010, Joey Comeau, One Bloody Thing After Another. From the entry newspaperland
  • Stretcher after stretcher paraded into the lot—I was aghast; there seemed no end to them.2003, Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin, page 381. From the entry parade
  • People were aghast as they saw a family of five Brisbanites being evicted by security guards.1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 67. From the entry Brisbanite
  • Liberals everywhere echoed the "yip and kyoodle" of the Osawatomie crowd; conservatives were aghast at Roosevelt's radicalism.1962, Ernest J. Wrage, Barnet Baskerville, Contemporary forum: American speeches on twentieth-century issues. From the entry kyoodle
  • The aghast and thunderstricken philosophers remained gazing at each other for a moment.1903, Richard Garnett, The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales. From the entry thunderstricken
  • A Tory Rip Van Winkle waking from decades of sleep to look round that cabinet table now would be aghast.2022 January 13, Polly Toynbee, “Finally the Tory papers have caught on that Johnson is a liar – what kept them?”, in The Guardian. From the entry Rip Van Winkle
  • Examples include the silent h in ghost (to match Dutch gheest, which later became geest), aghast, ghastly and gherkin.2019, Carson Stewart, History of the English Language, page 178. From the entry silent h
  • Kai raised his glance to mine, aghast.2016, Anthony Mercier, Akin Minds: Hierarchy of Lars, Xlibris. From the entry elfism
  • Viewers were aghast. . . .1996 May 13, David E. Thigpen, “If You Could Hear Her Now”, in Time. From the entry hissy fit
  • Both Henry and Leo are always aghast at the inability of the opposition to see the truth, which is so patiently being told them.1975 June 8, Heywood Hale Broun, “Leo [Durocher]’s impassioned account of Leo”, in Chicago Tribune (Book World section), Chicago, Ill.…. From the entry tua culpa
  • Staid Boston society brought up on the austere tempestuosities of Koussevitzky, were aghast at their visitor's Dionysian frenzies of whirling, jumping and crouching.1940, The Musical Record, volume 1/2, page 23, column 1. From the entry tempestuosity
  • Observe the handsome tree calf binding, notice the gold gilt crinkle edges and stand aghast with admiration before the profuse and artistic illustrations.”1925 August 20, “Daily Novelette: Two of a Kind”, in The Lindsay Daily Post, 29th year, number 194, Lindsay, Ont., page five, column 1. From the entry deluxe
  • Facing them is a rebel alliance of permanent residents and community enterprises who are aghast at the creeping “disneyfication” of one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.2020 January 5, Kevin McKenna, “Rebel alliance ready to put a halt to the ‘disneyfication’ of Edinburgh”, in The Observer, London…. From the entry disneyfication
  • As Italian soldiers advanced on Addis, Haile Selassie quietly boarded an overloaded train to Djibouti with his wife and five children, brushing aside the remonstrations of aghast Ethiopian notables.2005, Michela Wrong, I Didn't Do It For You, page 153. From the entry Addis
  • You see, those who were prepared for an attack of the empty-nest syndrome in September are aghast at the symptoms of a full-nest syndrome in November.1976 November 26, Ellen Goodman, “Half-way house”, in The Lincoln Star, page 4. From the entry full nest syndrome
  • O freeze my soul in fitful sleep lest wind-filled sprites bequim the air and take us singly or in threes in mad agog or lumpsome nub, aghast to Milford Haven.2009, S. Purcell, Popular Shakespeare. From the entry lumpsome

Meaning of aghast

  1. adjective Terrified; struck with amazement; showing signs of terror or horror.

Full definition of aghast

Questions about aghast in a sentence

How do you use aghast in a sentence?
Aghast is used as an adjective. For example: “I was aghast when the incident unfolded in front of me.”
What is a short sentence with aghast?
“Viewers were aghast. . . .”
What does aghast mean?
Aghast means terrified; struck with amazement; showing signs of terror or horror.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: aghast (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.

Last updated:

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