Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use plague in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Plague means the bubonic plague, the pestilent disease caused by the virulent bacterium Yersinia pestis. Example: “Ten Biblical plagues over Egypt, ranging from locusts to the death of the crown prince, finally forced Pharaoh to let Moses's people go.”

Examples of plague by meaning

nounAn epidemic or pandemic caused by any pestilence, but especially that caused by the above disease.

  • Great plagues, such as the bubonic plague or smallpox or syphilis or influenza, can happen again.2006, Irwin W. Sherman, chapter 17, in The Power of Plagues, →ISBN

nounA widespread affliction, calamity, or destructive influx, especially when seen as divine retribution.

  • Ten Biblical plagues over Egypt, ranging from locusts to the death of the crown prince, finally forced Pharaoh to let Moses's people go.

nounA grave nuisance, whatever greatly irritates.

  • Bart is an utter plague; his pranks never cease.
  • "In fact," he added ruefully, "that's the plague of it.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards...
  • It's understandable- we had a horrible plague, followed by two years of COVID!2022 April 30, Joe Biden, 0:36 from the start, in President Biden complete remarks at 2022 White House Correspondents' Dinner (C-SPAN)...

nounA group of common grackles (a blackbird), especially when flocking to e.g. parking lots at night.

  • Plague of Grackles Reminiscent of Hitchcock's ‘The Birds'October 31, 2017, Ben Russell, “Plague of Grackles Reminiscent of Hitchcock's ‘The Birds'”, in NBCDFW
  • A plague of grackles hang out on wires on Friday, Dec. 16, 2022 in Houston.2024 January 30, Shakari Briggs, “Have you seen big flocks of blackbirds crowd Texas parking lots? Here's why”, in Houston Chronicle
  • A so-called "plague" of grackles outside the Hancock Center H-E-B.April 1, 2016, Mose Buchele, Texas Standard

verbTo harass, pester or annoy someone persistently or incessantly.

  • Clinton now seems determined to prove, perhaps to the point of overcompensation, that she will not repeat the mistakes that plagued her 2008 campaign.2015 April 15, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, It’s Not Hard to Be Humble in an Effort to Regain Power”, in The New York Times

verbTo afflict with a disease or other calamity.

  • Natural catastrophes plagued the colonists till they abandoned the pestilent marshland.
  • Falling prices and drought plagued the cattle industry.

More sentences with plague

  • Epizootic plague occurred in the mice following introduction of rats from Europe.From the entry epizootic
  • California is plagued by quakes; there are a few minor ones almost every month.From the entry quake
  • Genetic problems caused by incest are thought to have plagued many royal families in the Middle Ages.From the entry incest
  • I’m one of those people who avoids confrontations like the plague.From the entry avoid like the plague
  • This seems to be a recrudescent strain of the plague rather than a wholly new disease.From the entry recrudescent
  • Extreme rainfall events predict irruptions of rat plagues in central Australia.From the entry irruption
  • He slept fitfully, plagued by bad dreams and a persistent cough.From the entry fitfully
  • It's easy to overromanticize the Middle Ages, but they were full of plague and poverty.From the entry overromanticize
  • The plague took rich and poor alike.From the entry take
  • The tourists were put in quarantine to ensure none of them would be able to spread the plague.From the entry quarantine
  • Our city is plagued by random acts of violence.From the entry random
  • Cliché should be avoided like the plague.From the entry avoid like the plague
  • The Mongol people were plagued by internecine conflict until Genghis Khan unified them by focusing their aggression outwards on other peoples.From the entry internecine
  • My colleague ironically avoids doctors like the plague!From the entry ironically
  • Professional biking is plagued with controversies over drug use.From the entry biking
  • Weaponized anthrax is a biological terror weapon, whereas anthrax found in the wild is unlikely to cause a plague.From the entry weaponized
  • Tesla’s first decade was plagued by unmet deadlines, technical snafus and cost overruns.2021 December 13, Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger, Alejandro de la Garza, “Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, in TIME, archived from the…. From the entry overrun
  • First came the plague, then the flood, and now the fire.2021 August 6, Gaby Hinsliff, “Johnson’s muddle over Covid is a foretaste of his thinking on climate change.”, in The Guardian. From the entry close to the bone
  • That seems to be a rat, proof that cats guarded ailourophobic Medieval humans from the plague.2021 December 7, u/catalyptic, “meow_irl”, in r/MEOW_IRL (Reddit post), archived from the original on 07 Dec 2021. From the entry ailourophobic
  • And sometimes plagues just miraculously disappeared after people realized their wrongdoings and repented.2020 February 24, “Family and Friends Treasure Falun Dafa Information in the Face of Novel Coronavirus Epidemic”, in Minghui. From the entry wrongdoing
  • For example, consider the “lawful but awful” shootings plaguing black communities across the country.2020 June 23, Tahir Duckett, “The Hidden Constitutional Costs of the Carceral System”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 23…. From the entry lawful but awful
  • Butterflies plagued Plante before a game, and shivers buzzled between his shoulder blades.2014, Stephen Smith, Puckstruck. From the entry buzzle
  • Bandits, raiders, and pirates have plagued civilized peoples around the globe for millennia.2013 Winter, Robert J. Bunker, "Defeating Violent Nonstate Actors," Strategic Studies Institute—U.S. Army War College (retrieved 24 May…. From the entry nonstate actor
  • The water sector has been plagued by lack of political support, poor governance, underresourcing and underinvestment.2012, World Water Assessment Programme, The United Nations World Water Development Report, →ISBN. From the entry underresourcing
  • The sinner's prayer is an example of a wrong presupposition that plagues much of modern evangelism.2011, John MacArthur et al., Evangelism: How to Share the Gospel Faithfully, page 134. From the entry decisionism
  • You know the answer already as to why the Phobians acquired the plague.2006, Alex De Witt, The Phobian Project, →ISBN. From the entry phobian
  • Miraculously, God was breaking the generational curse that plagued the Wooten lineage.2005, Willie F. Wooten, Breaking the Curse Off Black America, →ISBN, page 22. From the entry generational curse
  • You may find that upcroppings of guilt can plague you for months after a pregnancy loss.2004, Maureen Rank, Free to Grieve. From the entry upcropping
  • Bigenderism is a plague that specifically punishes gender-diverse people, but its negative effects go way beyond that.2003, Miqqi Alicia Gilbert, “Bigenderism”, in Transgender Tapestry, volume 102, retrieved 23 Sep 2020, page 16. From the entry bigenderism

Meaning of plague

  1. noun The bubonic plague, the pestilent disease caused by the virulent bacterium Yersinia pestis.
  2. noun An epidemic or pandemic caused by any pestilence, but especially that caused by the above disease.
  3. noun A widespread affliction, calamity, or destructive influx, especially when seen as divine retribution.

Full definition of plague

Questions about plague in a sentence

How do you use plague in a sentence?
Plague is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Ten Biblical plagues over Egypt, ranging from locusts to the death of the crown prince, finally forced Pharaoh to let Moses's people go.”
What is a short sentence with plague?
“Cliché should be avoided like the plague.”
What does plague mean?
Plague means the bubonic plague, the pestilent disease caused by the virulent bacterium Yersinia pestis.

Source and license

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