1
as in horrors
a situation or state that causes great suffering and unhappiness
waiting all those hours to hear if he'd survived the plane crash was pure agony
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in pains
a state of great suffering of body or mind
the agony of never knowing what happened to her son
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in explosions
a sudden intense expression of strong feeling
the announcement that the war was over unleashed a mass agony of joy
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of agonies
Her film is an honorable attempt to dramatize the everyday agonies and frustrations of Red Crescent workers, to honor their quick thinking and astonishing courage under duress.
—
Justin Chang, New Yorker, 14 Jan. 2026
Justin Chang, New Yorker, 14 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for agonies
Noun
-
And yet, in today’s topical songs by legacy rock artists, such elements don’t heighten the immediacy of the day’s horrors but, rather, run them through a sepia-toned filter.—
Mitch Therieau,
New Yorker,
7 Feb. 2026
-
In Silo, references to a toxic world imply that half a million people were sent underground to protect them from the horrors of a nuclear holocaust.—
Richard Edwards,
Space.com,
7 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
White southerners took great pains to keep track of men and women like Henry Fordham.—
Eugene Robinson,
The Atlantic,
3 Feb. 2026
-
My adolescence was an ordinary one, its joys and pains small.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
2 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Flaring involves burning off residual vapors or gases in a safe manner to depressurize them and prevent explosions or accidents.—
Stephen Underwood,
Hartford Courant,
7 Feb. 2026
-
On Saturday, Atallah Abu Hadaiyed heard explosions in Gaza City during his morning prayers and ran outside to find his cousins lying on the ground as flames curled around them.—
Sam Metz,
Chicago Tribune,
6 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
But nothing could have prepared viewers for the movie's ending, as an unfinished screenplay became the stuff of nightmares — literally and figuratively.—
Richard Edwards,
Space.com,
8 Feb. 2026
-
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is often portrayed in popular media as subjects experiencing hypervigilance, flashbacks, and nightmares.—
Eva Cornman,
Hartford Courant,
5 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
The dramatic close-up image below captures the immense sunspot region responsible for this week's outbursts.—
Daisy Dobrijevic,
Space.com,
4 Feb. 2026
-
But for how much longer can Spurs continue to turn a blind eye to Romero’s online outbursts?—
Jay Harris,
New York Times,
3 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
This week’s massive winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on at least 19 states, including those like Texas and Tennessee that are less prepared to deal with the miseries of winter weather.—
Amy Feldman,
Forbes.com,
28 Jan. 2026
-
The victims of prejudice and inequality are always the best guardians of the ramparts that sustain those miseries.—
Cressida Leyshon,
New Yorker,
23 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Also, some bursts showed strong circular polarization, a signal characteristic of magnetic processes.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
1 Feb. 2026
-
Hulu has steadily built a library of bold, thought-provoking miniseries that have managed to entertain audiences in short bursts.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
31 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Former Jews deemed insufficiently converted faced the Spanish Inquisition’s tortures.—
David Bloom,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Agonies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/agonies. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.
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