How to use mayhem in a sentence

30 example sentences · noun, verb

Mayhem means the criminal offence of maiming (“seriously wounding”) a person such that their ability to defend or protect themselves is weakened or completely removed; (countable) an instance of this. Example: “In all the mayhem, some children were separated from their parents.”

Examples of mayhem by meaning

nounThe criminal offence of maiming (“seriously wounding”) a person such that their ability to defend or protect themselves...

to commit mayhem

nounThe criminal offence of maiming a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs.

There is a story told of a case where a notorious character was charged with the unusual crime of "mayhem"—biting off another man's finger.1906, Arthur [Cheney] Train, “Tricks of the Trade”, in The Prisoner at the Bar: Sidelights on the Administration of Criminal Justice, New...

nounOften preceded by to cause or make: great confusion, destruction, disorder, or trouble; chaos, turmoil; (countable) an...

In all the mayhem, some children were separated from their parents.
What if the legendary hero Robin Hood had been born into the mayhem of the 20th century?
In the 1870's, a young newspaper editor named Henry George walked the streets of San Francisco lamenting the paradoxical economic mayhem that lay all around him.1981 May 27, William G. Tucker, “George, Keynes, Reagan, rabbit and hat”, in The New York Times (A section), New York, N.Y.: The New York...

nounViolent conduct, especially the violent infliction of injury on a person or thing.

The fighting dogs created mayhem in the flower beds.
"Tell me," I said, "when one surrenders his personal feelings to his professional feelings, may not the action be defined as a sort of spiritual mayhem?"1908 February 19, Jack London, “Slaves of the Machine”, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co....

verbTo violently inflict injury on (someone); to injure, to wound.

Outside the enclosures a parade of pugs went solemnly through their exercises—skipping rope, mayheming the punching bags, pawing the air at invisible opponents.1942 April 20, “Nostalgia on Jacobs Beach: Fight Club’s End Raises the Ghosts of Famous Bygone Battles”, in Newsweek, volume XIX, number...

More sentences with mayhem

It was mayhem in the thick of battle.From the entry thick
Illinois football and the entire university are in a state of mayhem. . . .2015 August 28, Kevin Trahan, “The University of Illinois is a dumpster fire”, in insidenu.com, retrieved 27 Oct 2016. From the entry dumpster fire
Six weeks of mayhem, because the people who love this flag are going "They've taken my fleg!2013, 7:38 from the start, in The Blame Game, season 7, episode 2, Jake O'Kane (actor). From the entry fleg
It means “mischief.” Lurid tales of murder and mayhem among the upper classes.2010, David Davalos, Wittenberg: A Tragical-Comical-Historical in Two Acts, Dramatists Play Service, →ISBN, act one, page 24. From the entry dukicide
But after the madness and mayhem, "Meds" leaves an acidic aftertaste.2007 November 9, “THEATER REVIEW: Laughs help bitter meds go down”, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution. From the entry silly pill
I had slept through all this mayhem on the other side of the apartment.2006, Kevin Blue, Practical Justice: Living Off-Center in a Self-Centered World, →ISBN, page 54. From the entry go
Literary history abounds with cases of multi-addiction and personal mayhem of the most childish sort.1999, Rick Bass, Brown dog of the Yaak: essays on art and activism. From the entry multi-addiction
There′s a fine line between self-defence and pure and simple mayhem.1998, Barry Westburg, Glenda & Me & Meathead Go For Broke: Rage of Angels: Expatriate Tales, page 74. From the entry cark it
We know our school system is beset by mayhem and indifference.1996 February 26, Michael Tomasky, “Kids Say the Darnedest Things”, in New York Magazine. From the entry mud wrestling
The line between a normal, functioning society and catastrophic decivilization can be crossed with a single act of mayhem.2024 December 11, Adrienne LaFrance, “Decivilization May Already Be Under Way”, in The Atlantic. From the entry decivilization
Betraying not a sign of the general mayhem he had just created, he answered a Dorothy Dixer about television violence.2002, Don Watson, Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM, page 273. From the entry dorothy dixer
As incensed as the public gets at appallingly brutal killings–the ones that blow away innocents–police expend little sympathy on criminal-to-criminal mayhem.1989 May 14, Los Angeles Times, page 1. From the entry NHI
Therefore our apology to such bombinators, radicals, Utopians and Schoengeisten who might read this work expecting intellectual mayhem.1941, Bennett Cerf, Van H. Cartmell, editors, Sixteen Famous American Plays, Random House, page 140. From the entry bombinator
Londoners are almost through the Tube driver strike, which was set to bring mayhem, but thousands of strikelists have avoided the brunt of it.2026 April 23, Noora Mykkanen, “Strikelists take over London again – but have these strikes been less chaotic?”, in Metro, archived from…. From the entry strikelist
Sir Jim Mackey, the chief executive of NHS England, has already described the walkout as “cruel”, “calculated” and designed to “cause mayhem”, giving its timing.2025 December 12, Tobi Thomas, Denis Campbell, “NHS bracing for worst ever winter crisis in next fortnight amid rising flu cases”, in The…. From the entry resident doctor
Both have ears plugged with earbuds, delightfully oblivious to the mayhem and destruction unfolding in the background of every shot: fire, car crashes, brain-hungry zombies!2018 November 27, April Wolfe, “Anna And The Apocalypse is a Holiday-horror Cocktail of Singing, Maiming, and Clichés”, in The A.V. Club…. From the entry earbud
Hard to imagine, too, the emotions of the first responders – the ambulance crews, the medics and the police – faced by ghastly mayhem.2017 August 20, “The Observer view on the attacks in Spain”, in The Observer, archived from the original on 28 Oct 2020. From the entry first responder
My dormantly resting multitasking skills had never been so sensely bombarded, as absolute chaos kissed the lips of mayhem that thwarted our every turn.2011, Eddie Horton, Just Compass - Page 16. From the entry sensely
Over the benches lay shirts and gallused trousers, and the chatter and chaff was like many drums and many fifes and many boys and mayhem.2001, Jamie O’Neill, chapter 4, in At Swim, Two Boys. From the entry gallused
While everyone into J-Horror is gushing over the zombie mayhem that is Junk, I think Wild Zero is a far better movie.2000 November 1, Latte Thunder, “Wild Zero - More Japanese Zombies!!”, in alt.horror (Usenet), retrieved 05 Oct 2018, message-ID…. From the entry J-horror
Among them was Ryan Ferchaud, 37, a tourist from Memphis who mostly faulted groups of college students for what she said was their no-holds-barred attitude regarding the mayhem.2021 March 22, Neil Vigdor, Michael Majchrowicz, Azi Paybarah, “Miami Beach, Overwhelmed by Spring Break, Extends Emergency Curfew”, in…. From the entry no holds barred
Unfortunately it quite often sidelined any democratic processes and became an integral part of the general mayhem as some unfortunate misfit of the moment was held down and gozzed on.2018, Roger Smith, Tell Me Why, Troubador Publishing, →ISBN, page 120. From the entry gozz

Meaning of mayhem

noun The criminal offence of maiming (“seriously wounding”) a person such that their ability to defend or protect themselves is weakened or completely removed; (countable) an instance of this.
noun The criminal offence of maiming a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs.
noun Often preceded by to cause or make: great confusion, destruction, disorder, or trouble; chaos, turmoil; (countable) an instance of this.

Full definition of mayhem

Questions about mayhem in a sentence

How do you use mayhem in a sentence?: Mayhem is used as a noun and verb. For example: “In all the mayhem, some children were separated from their parents.”
What is a short sentence with mayhem?: “to commit mayhem”
What does mayhem mean?: Mayhem means the criminal offence of maiming (“seriously wounding”) a person such that their ability to defend or protect themselves is weakened or completely removed; (countable) an instance of this.

Adapted from Wiktionary: mayhem (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: 2026-09-02

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