How to Use rapt in a Sentence

rapt

adjective
  • The children sat rapt as the puppets danced.
  • The students listened with rapt attention.
  • Of course, actual dancing is not guaranteed — this is Bon Iver, after all — but the crowd’s rapt attention for a set of hometown heroes probably is.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 5 Aug. 2024
  • From the minute his 8-inch heels click across the stage, the crowd is rapt.
    Sonaiya Kelley, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2023
  • The place is packed and the audience is rapt for the matinee.
    Peter Marks, Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2022
  • Bloom was hired to pay rapt attention to the five-year plan.
    BostonGlobe.com, 6 June 2021
  • Visitors were rapt in this section and in the one on the rise of al-Qaeda and bin Laden.
    Brian T. Allen, National Review, 11 Sep. 2021
  • Thankfully, the academy seems to have been just as rapt as the rest of us were.
    Washington Post, 13 July 2021
  • Joe is more than the sum of his ambitions, and life, the movie reminds us, is more than a rapt nightclub crowd.
    Justin Chang Film Critic, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2020
  • At the bookstore, Ó Tuama read from his book in front of a rapt audience.
    Eliza Griswold, The New Yorker, 5 Dec. 2022
  • After the sixth song, Smyers could no longer contain his glee and finally paused to speak to the rapt crowd.
    Nancy Kruh, PEOPLE.com, 16 Aug. 2021
  • His invention was born of a childhood rapt by the beauty of an atlas.
    Dan Zak, Washington Post, 7 Apr. 2023
  • From the side of the room, Angela Milhouse listened with rapt attention.
    Daniel Wu, Washington Post, 9 July 2024
  • The songs shined broken down to their spare elements, bringing the rapt audience close to tears.
    Lily Moayeri, SPIN, 2 July 2024
  • The conference hall, like the Labour Party, was not entirely rapt.
    Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 2 Oct. 2021
  • While Lacoon’s truth is told in less than a dozen lines and he and his sons are devoured by snakes, Sinon has a rapt audience among the Trojans.
    Roger Valdez, Forbes, 3 June 2022
  • Grim stuff, but the dropout, Strasberg, sat rapt at every performance.
    Jesse Green, New York Times, 28 Nov. 2023
  • By all accounts the jurors, too, have paid rapt attention.
    Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor, 28 May 2024
  • Inside the courtroom, Depp’s fans were rapt by his appearance.
    Victoria Bekiempis, Vulture, 12 Apr. 2022
  • One of the young people who paid rapt attention to him was Jamie Bernstein, one of Mr. Bernstein’s three children.
    New York Times, 4 Mar. 2021
  • And in front of a rapt audience, whether sitting in the orchestra or in the second-to-last row, their talent towers.
    Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 28 Nov. 2023
  • Meanwhile, Sanghui, a transfer student who knew Hae-on only from afar, acts as a stand-in for the rapt audience.
    Arianna Rebolini, Vulture, 28 Oct. 2021
  • In the same city, Anadolu broadcast the rescue of Aysegul Bayir, 35, live to a rapt Turkish audience.
    Gulsin Harman, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2023
  • In the overflow room across from the courtroom, Arbery’s aunt, Thea Brooks, watched the proceedings with rapt attention.
    Shelia Poole, ajc, 18 Nov. 2021
  • On a recent cold and clear night, Kari Lake stood alone on a dark stage, spotlit in front of a rapt crowd, and called on her supporters to vote as if their lives depend on it.
    Jess Bidgood, BostonGlobe.com, 4 Nov. 2022
  • Arsenio Hall, who in 1989 became the first Black host to helm a late night talk show, sat with his guests on couches and leaned in close with rapt attention.
    CNN, 7 May 2021
  • The companion, a man almost 70 years younger and dressed all in black, sat closer and listened with rapt attention.
    The Salt Lake Tribune, 11 July 2023
  • In this world, however—initially set in the 1960s—the Soviets are the ones who take that giant leap before a rapt and tearful world.
    Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 5 May 2021
  • A lot of guys had heard this before but by the end of the meeting, everyone was sitting up and listening to him in rapt attention.
    Keith Thursby, Los Angeles Times, 4 June 2023
  • Holmes walked slowly to the stand before a rapt courtroom filled with spectators and jurors, all wearing masks.
    CBS News, 19 Nov. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rapt.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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