Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use ferocious in a sentence

26 example sentences · adjective

Ferocious means marked by extreme and violent energy. Example: “The dog sounds ferocious but it's all show.”

Examples of ferocious by meaning

adjectiveMarked by extreme and violent energy.

  • But it seemed to me that there were few faces like his, with the ferocious profile that brought to mind the Latin word rapax or one of Rouault's crazed death-dealing arbitrary kings.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 376
  • Scotland needed a victory by eight points to have a realistic chance of progressing to the knock-out stages, and for long periods of a ferocious contest looked as if they might pull it off.2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 09 Apr 2022
  • "My memory of him in the office at Peterborough was the ferocious nature of his typing, on a manual machine of course.2023 January 25, Howard Johnston, “Peter Kelly: August 2 1944-December 28 2022”, in RAIL, number 975, page 47

More sentences with ferocious

  • The dog sounds ferocious but it's all show.From the entry show
  • From miniscule bugs to great beasts of the deep, ferocious dinosaurs to cuddly-looking pandas.2019 February 7, James Olstein, Odd Science – Incredible Creatures, Pavilion Children's, →ISBN. From the entry creature
  • At Iwamadera, the Nio, a distinctive ebony and shiny as lacquer, enhanced their ferocious, don't-mess-with-me muscular stance.2018, Joan D. Stamm, A Pilgrimage in Japan, page 114. From the entry nio
  • They are ferocious and worthy adversaries, yet the X:WP writers have ignored wolfies for six years.2001 February 28, Baron Blackfang, “X:WP Unfair To Werewolves”, in alt.tv.xena (Usenet), archived from the original on 07 Dec 2025. From the entry wolfie
  • Cad was a ferocious driver of a quad, much given to wheelies, jumps and stunts in general.2000, Sam Llewellyn, Wonder Dog, page 20. From the entry quad
  • Those responsible for preannouncing the Internet's hot new ideas are pushing Push with a ferocious unanimity.1997 March 23, James Gleick, “Pushy, Pushy”, in The New York Times Magazine. From the entry unanimity
  • He is correctly ferocious, but like all bullies cringeful before the malevolent Katisha.1960, The New York Times Theater Reviews - Volume 7, page 407. From the entry cringeful
  • I think the Efreet is bigger and uglier, and more ferocious than the Jinn.1936 December 4, Geo[rge] Beale, “The Arabian Nights (Concluding Article)”, in West Lothian Courier […], 67th year, number 3538, Bathgate…. From the entry efreet
  • A civil magistrate would not in such a case have been so Draconianly ferocious.1914 June 26, “Current Topics”, in The Australian Christian Commonwealth, volume XXVII, number 1349, Adelaide, S.A., →OCLC, page 11…. From the entry draconianly
  • They had three ferocious dogs, also askals, who were notorious for chasing after people who passed by the house.2023, Bong Serrano, “All Dogs Go to Heaven”, in Batangas: My Sky and Earth: An Intimate Recollection and Reflection of My Childhood in the…. From the entry askal
  • In a state of panic I would reach unbelievable speeds in frantic, lung-bursting attempts to outcycle the ferocious beasts.2009, James O'Reilly, Larry Habegger, Travelers' Tales India: True Stories, page 220. From the entry outcycle
  • The gladiator heelwalker (Tyrannophasma gladiator) is a ferocious nocturnal predator.2007, Naskrecki, Piotr, The smaller majority : the hidden world of the animals that dominate the tropics, page 247. From the entry heelwalker
  • His three-point shooting, rebounding and ferocious defense are just what the Knicks need at the small forward spot.2004 December 7, Wesley Pruden, “Cheer, Cheer for Old Siwash U”, in The Washington Times. From the entry thugification
  • The guyascutus was a ferocious, man-eating beast which, after much fanfare and sensational publicity, was exhibited in small antebellum Southern towns.1979, American Humor - Volume 6, page 15. From the entry guyascutus
  • The only mother I knew was a ferocious she-ape.”1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 46. From the entry she-ape
  • The cargo ship, en route to Corner Brook from Montreal, lost power in the early morning of Feb. 15 during a ferocious blizzard.2025 December 29, Lindsay Jones, “A Newfoundland winter brings new risks to Coast Guard's biggest-ever operation. Crews at mercy of the…. From the entry container
  • A ferocious storm kept the two men trapped on a portaledge—an artificial tent platform hung from pitons over the vertical void—for seven days and nights.1999, Conrad Anker, David Roberts, The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mount Everest, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 99. From the entry portaledge
  • Thence he passed to the huge and ferocious bird, the phororachus, and to the great elk which still roams upon this upland.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC. From the entry phororachus
  • What dictators fear most is losing the support of the armed forces, and when this happens, it's as if a ferocious beast has lost its teeth.2020 September 23, Shi Chuan, “When Police Officers No Longer Work for Dictators”, in Minghui, archived from the original on 13 Nov 2021. From the entry dictator
  • Whatever it is Jordan did on Greg Monroe, it was a ferocious finish that left the Bucks’ center on the ground, probably contemplating how Jordan did what he did.2015 December 14, Angelica Yaghoubi, NBA.com, archived from the original on 23 Apr 2026. From the entry thrunk
  • Only when the bankers and industrialists abroad realized that a ferocious class struggle in Germany was raging did they begin to relent somewhat on their economic bloodletting.2004 July 1, Leslie Feinberg, “Sexual freedom vs. fascism in Germany”, in Workers World. From the entry bloodletting
  • They are, however, still quite ferocious and not to be trifled with because they’ve been cross-bred with the best guard dogs from the Major Pie R.1994, Peter Spear, “Hellhounds”, in Return to Zork (BradyGames), Indianapolis, Ind.: Brady Publishing, →ISBN, page 141. From the entry kennelry
  • The New World was experiencing the cruelties of many of these mercenary adventurers whose religious medals, Crucifixes and Rosary mumblings were varnishments of a ferocious quest for gold.1969, K. T. Wills, Vanozza: A Novel of the Enigmatical Borgias of the Renaissance. From the entry varnishment

Meaning of ferocious

  1. adjective Marked by extreme and violent energy.
  2. adjective Extreme or intense.

Full definition of ferocious

Questions about ferocious in a sentence

How do you use ferocious in a sentence?
Ferocious is used as an adjective. For example: “The dog sounds ferocious but it's all show.”
What is a short sentence with ferocious?
“The dog sounds ferocious but it's all show.”
What does ferocious mean?
Ferocious means marked by extreme and violent energy.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ferocious (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 ferocious in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/ferocious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.