Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use riot in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Riot means a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by a large group of people, often involving violence or damage to property. Example: “The protests began peacefully but turned into riots after several days.”

Examples of riot by meaning

nounA tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by a large group of people, often involving violence or damage to property.

  • The protests began peacefully but turned into riots after several days.

nounA wide and unconstrained variety.

  • In summer this flower garden is a riot of colour.
  • Nevertheless we are as yet far from able to reduce the riot of spoken languages to a small number of “stocks.”1921, Edward Sapir, chapter VII, in Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech

nounA humorous or entertaining event or person.

  • This is a total riot!1997, Daniel Clowes, “The First Time”, in Ghost World, Jonathan Cape, published 2000, →ISBN, page 34
  • They call me "quiet girl", but I'm a riot2007, Jules De Martino, Katie White, “That's Not My Name”, performed by The Ting Tings

verbTo create or take part in a riot; to raise an uproar or sedition.

  • The nuclear protesters rioted outside the military base.

More sentences with riot

  • She really read him the riot act about his smoking habit.From the entry read someone the riot act
  • When the favorite was scratched from the race, there was a riot at the betting windows.From the entry scratch
  • The government called in the army to deal with the riots.From the entry call in
  • In her view, there's only one thing to be done about it: read them the riot act.From the entry in someone's view
  • Financial panic, earthquakes, oil spills, riots. What comes next?From the entry next
  • The angry demonstrators egged the riot police.From the entry egg
  • The riots stopped when police moved in.From the entry stop
  • The prisoners who started the riot were moved to solitary.From the entry solitary
  • The riot squad tear gassed the mob.From the entry tear gas
  • In contrast to most projections of the aftermath of nuclear war, in this there is no rioting or looting.From the entry aftermath
  • The deceased was unlawfully killed during a riot.From the entry unlawfully
  • The judge was satisfied that the defendant did not go out with the intent to start a riot.From the entry satisfied
  • The footage we shot at the riot yesterday got ruined.From the entry footage
  • The show ended with a riot of feedbacking guitars.From the entry feedback
  • The hooligans mooned the riot police.From the entry moon
  • Police have to tame the riots.From the entry tame
  • He was arrested for fomenting a riot; after all, it's bad enough being in a riot but starting one is much worse.From the entry foment
  • The past few days of the Harris campaign were an increasingly excruciating riot of celebrity bandwagonning.2024 November 15, Marina Hyde, “To the stars vowing to flee Trump’s America: maybe your excruciating endorsements were part of the…. From the entry bandwagonning
  • "Cakeism" has run riot — vast, incoherent ambitions detached from political, economic and business realities.2022, The Guardian, "Brexit legacy is just the start of incoming PM's problems as cost of living crisis spirals", Will Hutton, 10 July 2022. From the entry cakeism
  • From April onwards, however, the antireservation agitation and communal riots took place simultaneously.2016, Megha Kumar, Communalism and Sexual Violence in India: The Politics of Gender, Ethnicity and Conflict, →ISBN. From the entry antireservation
  • I'd be in for riot blocking preds with a small daze (no-stun).2016 September 9, Sarah_U., “Archived copy”, in CM-SS13 Forums (forum), archived from the original on 31 Jul 2026. From the entry outcun
  • I can't get over how you parents let your children run riot over you.2009 February 2, Dita De Boni, “Keeping Mum: Sparing the Rod?”, in New Zealand Herald. From the entry rod for one's back
  • Rarely do American or English papers print photographs of nonrioting fans responding negatively to rioting fans.2007, Jerry Middleton Lewis, Sports fan violence in North America. From the entry nonrioting
  • If you want to join this riot, we urge you to!2003, Michael Newton, The Encyclopedia of High-tech Crime and Crime-fighting, AOL Riot on June 1, 1998, page 21. From the entry punt
  • Whoever's doing this wants you all at each other's throats—fighting each other like animals, rioting like maniacs.2002, Keith R. A. DeCandido, The Brave and the Bold: Book One, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 101. From the entry whoever's
  • Count among its faults the phrasemongery that ran riot a while back.2001, J. Scheibert, Frederic Trautmann, A Prussian Observes the American Civil War, →ISBN. From the entry phrasemongery
  • They combined well and the evenings were riots of exchanged gambling information, Pimms, pool and vodka doubles.2001, Hugh Thomson, The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland, Phoenix, published 2010, →ISBN. From the entry Pimms
  • A final type is the issueless riot, which has no observable motivation or goal.2000, Steven E Barkan, Lynne L Snowden, Collective violence. From the entry issueless
  • WHAT DO pinups, girl reporters, dumb blonds, wimmin’s libbers, and riot grrrlz have in common?1999, Trina Robbins, From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of ♀ Comics from Teens to Zines, San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, →ISBN, back…. From the entry riot grrrlz
  • Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture.1998, Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard, Shakespeare in Love, New York: Hyperion, page 21. From the entry unbiddable
  • And you got your riggers riot through the street—Gettysburg, or some Goddamn place like that.1996, Bill Hutton, A History of America, 2nd edition, [Toronto, Ont.]: Coach House Books, →ISBN, page 34. From the entry goddamn
  • It is slightly believable because the stairs are all riot stairs.1994 December 14, Tim Gray, “The Myth of the Prison Builder”, in alt.folklore.college (Usenet). From the entry riot stairs
  • Stephen continued to see more of Sarah, after the Black Friday riots.1994 May, Bernard Heydorn, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, in Walk Good Guyana Boy, Newmarket, Ont.: Learning Improvement Centre, published…. From the entry typee
  • He had summarily called him down to his office to read him the riot act.1993, Ruth M. Sprague, Wild Justice. From the entry read someone the riot act

Meaning of riot

  1. noun A tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by a large group of people, often involving violence or damage to property.
  2. noun A wide and unconstrained variety.
  3. noun A humorous or entertaining event or person.

Full definition of riot

Questions about riot in a sentence

How do you use riot in a sentence?
Riot is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The protests began peacefully but turned into riots after several days.”
What is a short sentence with riot?
“This is a total riot!”
What does riot mean?
Riot means a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by a large group of people, often involving violence or damage to property.

Source and license

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