as in reformative
serving to raise or adjust something to some standard or proper condition
the belief that manual labor was a reformatory experience for convicted felons, who would learn the value of hard work
Synonyms & Similar Words
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as in reform school
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of reformatory
JSTOR Daily, 24 June 2024
His mother sent him to the Élan School in Maine, a reformatory boarding institution with extreme forms of discipline, including shouting sessions and boxing matches, that attracted widespread criticism and that led to the school’s closing in 2011.
—Alex Traub, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024
Essence, 13 Feb. 2025
On the cusp of college, he’s instead sentenced to time at a notorious reformatory.
—Patrick Hipes, Deadline, 2 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for reformatory
Adjective
While Spanish Catholicism and reformatory Protestantism favored black clothing, much of the Renaissance happened in an explosion of color.
—JSTOR Daily, 24 June 2024
His mother sent him to the Élan School in Maine, a reformatory boarding institution with extreme forms of discipline, including shouting sessions and boxing matches, that attracted widespread criticism and that led to the school’s closing in 2011.
—Alex Traub, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024
Noun
James Thompson remembered the words of the state psychologist he was required to visit weekly in Charlotte after being released from the state reformatory.
—Essence, 13 Feb. 2025
On the cusp of college, he’s instead sentenced to time at a notorious reformatory.
—Patrick Hipes, Deadline, 2 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for reformatory
Recent Examples of Synonyms for reformatory
Adjective
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As part of the reformative aims of the convict system, many of these men were incarcerated at Fremantle Prison, trained, and put to work on infrastructure projects such as bridges, roads, and public buildings.—
Livia Gershon,
JSTOR Daily,
7 Aug. 2025
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Fifty-five years after Martin Luther King's death, African Americans continue to proudly honor his reformative legacy in Phoenix.—
The Arizona Republic,
The Arizona Republic,
14 Jan. 2024
Noun
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This staggering drama forces the viewer to bear witness to brutal conditions at a corrupt reform school through the eyes of two of its students — literally.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
28 Dec. 2025
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The Netflix drama, directed by Tim Mielants and written by Max Porter, is a reimagining of Porter’s best-selling novel Shy and follows a pivotal day in the life of head teacher Steve (Murphy) and his students at a last-chance reform school.—
Lily Ford,
HollywoodReporter,
1 Dec. 2025
Adjective
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Occasionally, King’s assistants, a pair of bulky guys with law-enforcement backgrounds, offered the stumbling line a corrective shove.—
Charles Bethea,
New Yorker,
30 Mar. 2026
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Council members and staffers have been grappling with cost estimates that peg corrective repairs to the City Hall building at $329 million and more than $1 billion for full modernization over 20 years.—
Devyani Chhetri,
Dallas Morning News,
28 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Macabre possibilities haunted us at night, Piranesian visions of dungeons and interrogation chambers.—
Daniel Brook,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Mar. 2026
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But after refusing to eat for several days, the would-be suicide detects a scratching inside his dungeon wall.—
Michael Dirda,
The New York Review of Books,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The film required an Air Force training school and an air base that still preserved a genuine 1970s aesthetic.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
18 Feb. 2026
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On this date in 1892, the 13 original rules of basketball were printed in the training school newspaper for the Springfield YMCA.—
Zach Harper,
New York Times,
15 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The door locks sound like something out of a 1970s gulag.—
Joel Feder,
The Drive,
26 Mar. 2026
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The roots of Soviet and post-Soviet homophobia lie not in religion, but in the legacy of the Soviet gulag—where being homosexual was considered the worst thing that could befall a man.—
Mikhail Zygar,
Vanity Fair,
7 Jan. 2026
Noun
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One is a stony oubliette with crystals growing out of the walls.—
Erin Alberty,
Axios,
6 Jan. 2025
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This godown was an oubliette.—
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi,
Harper’s Magazine ,
7 Dec. 2021
Noun
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Once tucked inside the seed coat, the starches, oils, and protein in endosperm keep for months.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
25 Mar. 2026
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Brandt Clarke’s keep-in at the blue line went to the wall for Kempe, who drew a defender and slipped the puck to Kopitar.—
Andrew Knoll,
Daily News,
22 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Reformatory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/reformatory. Accessed 3 Apr. 2026.
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