Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use pile in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Pile means a mass of things heaped together; a heap. Example: “When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile, and the annoying guy on the "no" pile.”

Examples of pile by meaning

nounA mass of things heaped together; a heap.

  • Containerization is a long overdue step in bringing our city’s trash collection into the modern era, putting an end to the piles of garbage that have become far too common across our city.2026 April 17, Julia Kerson, quotee, “Mayor Mamdani Takes Major Step Toward Citywide Trash Containerization, Announces Six New Districts”...

nounA group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.

  • When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile, and the annoying guy on the "no" pile.

nounA mass formed in layers.

  • a pile of shot

nounA large amount of money.

  • He made a pile from that invention of his.

nounA list or league.

  • And the moment it thumped into the net, Celtic’s march back to the top of the SPL pile also seemed unstoppable.2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record
  • Watch Harlequins train and you get some idea of why they are back on top of the pile going into Saturday's rerun of last season's grand final against Leicester.2012 September 20, Shaun Edwards, “Bent double and lungs burning – how Harlequins train for trophies”, in The Guardian (online)

verbTo lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate.

  • They were piling up wood on the wheelbarrow.

verbTo cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.

  • We piled the camel with our loads.
  • Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist.2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70

verbTo add something to a great number.

  • But as the second half wore on, Sunderland piled forward at every opportunity and their relentless pressure looked certain to be rewarded in the closing stages.2010 December 28, Owen Phillips, “Sunderland 0-2 Blackpool”, in BBC

More sentences with pile

  • I tried to organize my stuff but just ended up making a big doom pile.From the entry doom
  • There's a lot in that wash: maybe you should split it into two piles.From the entry wash
  • The enormous pile of spaghetti landed on the floor in an amorphous heap.From the entry amorphous
  • Sort the letters in those bags into a separate pile for each language.From the entry sort
  • Some nutjob once built a small atomic pile in his back yard.From the entry atomic
  • The whiffy smell of the compost pile made me turn away.From the entry whiffy
  • On my first day in the office, I was tasked with sorting a pile of invoices.From the entry task
  • I lifted up the pile of clothes, and underneath, on the floor, was a dark red stain.From the entry underneath
  • The introductory swimming instructor carried a pile of kickboards to the pool for the children.From the entry kickboard
  • The champ ended the boxing match with a pile driver blow to his opponent’s jaw.From the entry pile driver
  • Below the hole the mice made in the woodwork was a pile of mealy sawdust.From the entry mealy
  • The moccasin maker had a pile of deerskin on the table, waiting to be cut out.From the entry deerskin
  • This pile was counted yesterday. Those piles over there are still uncounted.From the entry uncounted
  • "Just so much flour," he replied, sprinkling a small pile on the table.From the entry so much
  • This synopsis saves me from having to wade through a pile of textbooks.From the entry wade through
  • He made two piles of clothes even steven and let me pick which one I wanted.From the entry even steven
  • A pile of leaves broke my fall when I slipped off the roof of the shed.From the entry break one's fall
  • All that was left was a small pile of ash.From the entry all
  • We raked all the leaves into a pile.From the entry rake
  • Piles were sunk into the river to support the bridge.From the entry piles
  • The pile of pennies began to topple.From the entry topple
  • In the discount bin by the door sat a pile of pan and scans, mostly comedies, that no one would touch.From the entry pan and scan
  • The teacher sat down to a pile of unmarked work.From the entry unmarked
  • The crowd cheered as a firebrand was tossed onto the huge pile of wood to start the traditional homecoming bonfire.From the entry firebrand
  • A miscellaneous pile of clothing, buttons, tools and other junk.From the entry miscellaneous
  • An unpitched tent is just a pile of fabric.From the entry unpitched
  • He must earn piles of money.From the entry piles
  • Could you sort out your wardrobe and put the clothes you no longer use in one pile to give away and another to throw away?From the entry sort out
  • We searched unmethodically through the piles of boxes, grabbing them at random and losing track of which ones we had checked before.From the entry unmethodically
  • I haven't as much dirt in this pile as I would like; I think that I shall adstruct it by shovelling more dirt on top.From the entry adstruct

Meaning of pile

  1. noun A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
  2. noun A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
  3. noun A mass formed in layers.

Full definition of pile

Questions about pile in a sentence

How do you use pile in a sentence?
Pile is used as a noun and verb. For example: “When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile, and the annoying guy on the "no" pile.”
What is a short sentence with pile?
“a pile of shot”
What does pile mean?
Pile means a mass of things heaped together; a heap.

Source and license

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