How to Use clown in a Sentence

clown

1 of 2 noun
  • Who's the clown standing in the middle of the road?
  • Those big shoes make you look like a clown!
  • This clown falling for all of it.
    — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 21 Jan. 2026
  • This clown falling for all of it.
    — Jami Ganz, New York Daily News, 21 Jan. 2026
  • This clown falling for all of it.
    — Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 27 Jan. 2026
  • How many wars has this clown started?
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 11 Mar. 2026
  • The clown has a provocative past.
    — Time, 30 Oct. 2025
  • The same clown who is owned by Vladimir Putin.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 11 Mar. 2026
  • New Yorkers are tired of the clown show.
    — Menachem Spiegel, New York Daily News, 5 Aug. 2025
  • There was a crazy man dressed in a clown outfit at the door to my home.
    — Sharon Edelson, Forbes, 22 Feb. 2023
  • Pink and blue clown paint is now smeared all over the driver's side airbag.
    — Camila Domonoske, NPR, 16 Dec. 2025
  • And speaking of clowns, in comes Charles on his walk of shame.
    — Tom Smyth, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Even a rival gave kudos — kind of — to the clown.
    — Anna Lazarus Caplan, PEOPLE, 8 May 2026
  • How did clowns become a protest symbol?
    — Janet W. Lee, NPR, 5 Mar. 2026
  • This winter season has been up and down like a clown on a pogo stick.
    — Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune, 15 Jan. 2023
  • Here's why the brutal' clown slasher movie is so hard to watch.
    — Naledi Ushe, USA TODAY, 28 Nov. 2022
  • One bedroom features some toys found in the movie as well as a clown.
    — Natalie Wu, CNBC, 31 Oct. 2025
  • There is more clown in him than most people have had a chance to discern.
    — John McPhee, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2023
  • There will be a clown, face painting and balloon art for the kids.
    — Elizabeth Marie Himchak, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Feb. 2026
  • These people are clowns, jesters, fools in the medieval sense.
    — Jp Brammer, Los Angeles Times, 8 Dec. 2023
  • When Will turns, the clown is waiting for him on top of the fridge.
    — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 8 Dec. 2025
  • The harder question, these days, is what lines the clown may cross.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2023
  • And, yeah, it’s run by unworthy—the clowns are the best one.
    — David Frum, The Atlantic, 4 Mar. 2026
  • Here's this clown in there, this gardener.
    — Nicole Pajer, PEOPLE, 7 Apr. 2026
  • There’s another clown for the car.
    — Krista Kafer, Denver Post, 31 Dec. 2025
  • Even if a plan is solid, clowns and trolls might try to take it down anyway.
    — Magi Helena, Dallas Morning News, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Did Gacy really dress up as a clown?
    — Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 20 Oct. 2025
  • Bill Skarsgård reprises his role as the clown.
    — Savannah Salazar, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025
  • How can the same guy embody both a stoic hero and this bumbling clown?
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 13 Sep. 2023
  • Elon Musk may have driven his own clown car into his own gold mine.
    — Carl Miller, WIRED, 20 Nov. 2022

clown

2 of 2 verb
  • There’s one dressed as a circus clown.
    — Brian Bennett, Time, 11 May 2026
  • Totally down to clown with the judges.
    — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 31 Jan. 2026
  • No more clowning around − at least not for about 27 years.
    — Taylor Ardrey, USA Today, 16 Dec. 2025
  • As a kid that meant mugging in home movies and clowning around in class.
    — Dan Greene, SI.com, 18 Oct. 2017
  • There’s a lot more of Elvis clowning around in cars and in rehearsal rooms.
    — Devon Ivie, Vulture, 25 Feb. 2026
  • What’s more, the photos are clown-themed — rainbow wigs, red noses, makeup, etc.
    — Abigail Van Buren, Twin Cities, 1 Apr. 2017
  • Was beef mouth trying to clown these kids for loving a rock group beneath his awareness?
    — Chris Richards, Washington Post, 4 June 2023
  • That didn’t stop fans from clowning Bosa after the 49ers loss.
    — cleveland, 3 Feb. 2020
  • Fans are clowning back at their favorite pop star's showmanship.
    — Nicole Fallert, USA Today, 12 Aug. 2025
  • Ice’s response came to an X user clowning a clip of her workouts.
    — Michael Saponara, Billboard, 25 Feb. 2026
  • People used to clown Compton ’cause the high school mascot is Tarbabes.
    — Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 12 Mar. 2026
  • This price is kind of clowning every other budget TV right now.
    — PC Magazine, 3 Dec. 2025
  • This price is kind of clowning every other budget TV right now.
    — PC Magazine, 1 Dec. 2025
  • This price is kind of clowning every other budget TV right now.
    — PC Magazine, 22 Nov. 2025
  • Eventually a local newspaper wrote a piece about me and my dad, the father/son clown duo.
    — Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 23 June 2026
  • In the second episode, Tom spends a night in the local inn, and ends up in a crawl space with the ghost of a psychotic killer clown.
    — Rachel Syme, New Yorker, 18 June 2026
  • But looks like the joke’s on everyone that clowned around, because the new camera systems have made way for a bunch of useful features.
    — Gabe Bergado, Teen Vogue, 18 Sep. 2019
  • Seems as if the airlines are still clowning and being targeted with lawsuits because of the clownery.
    — Breanna Edwards, The Root, 14 May 2018
  • Jimbo is a storyteller and clown with a message of love, tolerance and acceptance.
    — Hema Sivanandam, Mercury News, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Bill Skarsgård returns as killer clown Pennywise.
    — Ew Staff, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Playing versions of themselves and more or less just clowning around, the pair manages to be straight-faced and tremendously silly at once.
    — Nina Metz, chicagotribune.com, 30 Aug. 2017
  • Digital assistants egg on every other appliance in the house to clown around.
    — Joe Queenan, WSJ, 22 Mar. 2018
  • The motorcycles revved, the lions roared, the clowns clowned, and the good circus escaped from the wrath of the bad circus, or something like that.
    — Atul Gawande, vanityfair.com, 27 Feb. 2017
  • Dash countered by clowning Cam for 50 being his boss, and thus continued their public back-and-forth.
    — Armon Sadler, VIBE.com, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Taylor Swift used her latest moment behind a mic to clown football fans who complain when the camera cuts to her during games.
    — William Earl, Variety, 13 Aug. 2025
  • Anyway, the person eventually said that everyone was right to clown on their original tweet.
    — Li Goldstein, Bon Appétit, 4 Nov. 2022
  • However, not everyone who lives near the location is thrilled with the Joker fans clowning around.
    — Georgia Slater, PEOPLE.com, 23 Oct. 2019
  • Going back to at least ancient Rome, clowning figures were jesters and pranksters who teased the populace and spoke impolite truths.
    — Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, OrlandoSentinel.com, 14 Sep. 2017
  • Bill Skarsgård wasn’t clowning around in his preparations to play Pennywise.
    — Clark Collis, EW.com, 10 Dec. 2019
  • Just enjoy the Clintons making a half-hearted attempt to learn about clowning from someone who knew better than anyone else on earth.
    — Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 10 Feb. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'clown.' 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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