Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use warn in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Warn means to make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc. Example: “We waved a flag to warn the oncoming traffic about the accident.”

Examples of warn by meaning

verbTo make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc.

  • We waved a flag to warn the oncoming traffic about the accident.
  • I phoned to warn him of the road closure.

verbTo notify or inform (someone, about something).

  • I warned him he'd be getting a huge box of birthday presents from me.

verbTo summon (someone) to or inform of a formal meeting or duty.

  • The sheriff warned her to appear in court.

verbTo make a sound (e.g. clicking or whirring) indicating that it is about to strike or chime (an hour).

  • The clock warned, and the hands pointed to a few minutes before the hour.1902, Violet Jacob, The Sheep-Stealers, page 399

verbTo caution or admonish (someone) against unwise or unacceptable behaviour.

  • He was warned against crossing the railway tracks at night.
  • Don't let me catch you running in the corridor again, I warn you.

verbTo give warning.

  • Every country has its resident experts who warn that imported television will destroy the national consciousness and replace it with Dallas, The Waltons, Star Trek and Twin Peaks.1991, Clive James, “Making Programmes the World Wants”, in The Dreaming Swimmer, Jonathan Cape, published 1992

More sentences with warn

  • The government warned bus operators against continuing to show bold content on buses.From the entry bold
  • They warned that the effects of glacier melting on water resources are becoming “increasingly serious” for China.From the entry glacier
  • An idiomatic phrase that warns us against Pollyannaism is "don't count your chickens before they're hatched".From the entry idiomatic
  • Readers are to be warned that quotations in this chapter contain some not so savory language.From the entry savory
  • We were warned away from the rickety old mine because of the danger of cave-ins.From the entry cave-in
  • The letter warned of an impending shutoff if payment was not made promptly.From the entry shutoff
  • The book of Job warns us against self-righteousness, since no man can justify himself to God.From the entry self-righteousness
  • We warned him not to underdo it. This customer expects attention to detail.From the entry underdo
  • The landlord had been warned twice about noninstallation of smoke alarms in the properties he rented.From the entry noninstallation
  • Experts warn against using ordinary words as passwords as they are vulnerable to dictionary attacks.From the entry dictionary attack
  • My mother warned me not to squirrel around in my dad's workshop.From the entry squirrel around
  • I warn you not to breathe a word of this to anyone, or else!From the entry breathe a word
  • Onboard Doppler radar can warn pilots about wet microbursts by detecting the associated column of rapidly-descending rain.From the entry Doppler radar
  • The movie really should've content warned its police brutality and not just the drug use.From the entry content warn
  • Civil-liberties advocates warned that the expanding surveillance apparatus had created turnkey tyranny.From the entry turnkey tyranny
  • He warned us darkly that capital will never be sated.From the entry capital
  • You might have warned me about the thunderstorm.From the entry might
  • Every winter, doctors warn about seasonal flu.From the entry flu
  • Napoleon already warned of the awakening of the Dragon.From the entry dragon
  • They warned of the pernicious effects of misinformation.From the entry pernicious
  • The integral of a univariate real-valued function is the area under its curve; but be warned! Not all functions are integrable!From the entry integral
  • Listen, treacle, this is the last time I'll warn you!From the entry treacle
  • The Bible warns against the use of witchcraft and sorcery.From the entry witchcraft
  • When Chris overacted his part again, the director warned that anyone overplaying would be barred from the next production.From the entry overplay
  • People are being warned not to approach the escaped prisoner.From the entry escaped
  • The coach warned the team not to become discouraged.From the entry discouraged
  • We all missed the imperceptible shake of his head as he tried to warn us without being seen.From the entry imperceptible
  • The signs beside the road warned of ice.From the entry signs
  • The monkeys’ calls warn other animals of approachers.From the entry approacher
  • Politicians warned that unrestricted immigration would foreignize the country.From the entry foreignize
  • I warned him that this was a high-risk, high reward situation and that he should be prepared to lose it all.From the entry high-risk, high-reward
  • Welp, people did warn me that text creep was par for the course for HoYoverse games, but I was still surprised.From the entry text creep

Meaning of warn

  1. verb To make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc.
  2. verb To notify or inform (someone, about something).
  3. verb To summon (someone) to or inform of a formal meeting or duty.

Full definition of warn

Questions about warn in a sentence

How do you use warn in a sentence?
Warn is used as a verb. For example: “We waved a flag to warn the oncoming traffic about the accident.”
What is a short sentence with warn?
“Every winter, doctors warn about seasonal flu.”
What does warn mean?
Warn means to make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc.

Source and license

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