How to Use false alarm in a Sentence

false alarm

noun
Definition of false alarmnext
  • A false alarm drew firefighters to the school.
  • The report that the factory would be closing was a false alarm.
  • He thought he might be having a heart attack, but his chest pains were just a false alarm.
  • This isn't the first time a false alarm has sparked panic.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 13 Jan. 2020
  • No one knows for sure, and this may all turn out to be a false alarm.
    — Caitlin Long, Forbes, 4 June 2022
  • Yet April came to a close with nothing but false alarms.
    — Samantha Leach, Glamour, 7 May 2019
  • To be sure, there have been false alarms in high yield before.
    — Gunjan Banerji, WSJ, 4 Oct. 2018
  • The false alarm charge carries a penalty of five years in prison and/or $5,000.
    — Thomas Goodwin Smith, Baltimore Sun, 1 Feb. 2024
  • Las Vegas must feel the Atlanta Hawks were a false alarm in 2021.
    — Ray Glier, Forbes, 13 Oct. 2021
  • There was a false alarm when someone thought a new mattress was the wrong size.
    — Susannah Jacob, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2021
  • Unlike in 2016, this isn’t a false alarm or a Lucy and the football moment.
    — Chuck Carlton, Dallas News, 26 Aug. 2021
  • One such false alarm almost caused a crash from the car behind.
    — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, 5 Nov. 2019
  • Hanabusa used the false alarm as a key camapaign issue against Ige.
    — Amy Lieu, Fox News, 12 Aug. 2018
  • Her April fever had been a false alarm — just a teething baby — but this was the real thing.
    — Star Tribune, 2 Oct. 2020
  • The projected end of his empire had turned out to be a false alarm.
    — Time, 25 Jan. 2018
  • Petrov believed the incident to be a false alarm, and stood by his call.
    — Alex Hollings, Popular Mechanics, 7 Nov. 2018
  • Now, there’s a chance that these detections are false alarms.
    — Jackie Appel, Popular Mechanics, 22 Feb. 2023
  • Heads up that putting them near a fireplace, bathroom, or kitchen could cause a false alarm.
    — Quincy Bulin, Better Homes & Gardens, 11 Aug. 2023
  • The girl will be filed on in juvenile court for making false alarms.
    — cleveland, 27 Feb. 2020
  • This certainly isn't the first time false alarms and push alerts have sparked panic.
    — Jennifer Leman, Popular Mechanics, 13 Jan. 2020
  • But the terrorist scare turned out to be a false alarm and the Russian leader called off the order.
    — Lukas Mikelionis, Fox News, 12 Mar. 2018
  • The cause of the false alarm was not made immediately clear.
    — Natasha Bach, Fortune, 16 Jan. 2018
  • About 90 percent of ground sensor alerts were false alarms.
    — Lauren Etter, Bloomberg.com, 9 Apr. 2018
  • Search crews have responded to at least two false alarms since the search began.
    — Corey Arwood, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2019
  • But those tests fail to detect many cancers, and also send up a lot of false alarms.
    — Melissa Healy, latimes.com, 22 Mar. 2018
  • The false alarm started when a passerby spotted the large pooch on the top of an apartment building.
    — People Staff, PEOPLE.com, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Their low base rates mean that a positive test is more likely to be a false alarm.
    — Clayton Dalton, The New Yorker, 16 Sep. 2020
  • Since then, though, that performance had started to take on the distinct air of a false alarm.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 6 Dec. 2022
  • To avoid false alarms and achieve a true assessment of macroeconomic risks, the authors write, leaders should look past both to reclaim their own judgment.
    — Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak paul Swartz, Harvard Business Review, 1 July 2024
  • Many false alarms occurred during the nuclear age, ranging from the trivial to very serious.
    — Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week Uk, theweek, 22 Feb. 2024

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

Last Updated: