1
as in to purge
to free from moral guilt or blemish especially ceremonially
in an elaborate ritual the priestess cleansed the gathering of supplicants
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to clean
to remove the dirt from
cleanse the wound with soap and water before applying the bandage
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of cleanse
These trends are like the hair equivalent of taking a deep, cleansing spring breath.
—
Loren Savini, Allure, 14 Feb. 2026
When one heart is cleansed, the vibration of wholeness ripples outward.
—Payton Turkeltaub, Variety, 13 Feb. 2026
The idea of a tube up my tuchus didn’t scare me, nor did the notorious prep of drinking a foul-tasting liquid to cleanse your intestinal tract.
—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2026
In the beauty world, there’s tons of products, from cleansing oils to micellar waters, trusted to remove all traces of makeup from your face.
—Tatayana Yomary, Essence, 28 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for cleanse
Loren Savini, Allure, 14 Feb. 2026
When one heart is cleansed, the vibration of wholeness ripples outward.
—Payton Turkeltaub, Variety, 13 Feb. 2026
The idea of a tube up my tuchus didn’t scare me, nor did the notorious prep of drinking a foul-tasting liquid to cleanse your intestinal tract.
—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2026
In the beauty world, there’s tons of products, from cleansing oils to micellar waters, trusted to remove all traces of makeup from your face.
—Tatayana Yomary, Essence, 28 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for cleanse
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cleanse
Verb
-
Engineers were expected to purge the rocket of liquid propellants during the weekend and continue inspecting ground equipment before replacing a filter suspected to be the cause of the problem.—
Eric Lagatta,
USA Today,
16 Feb. 2026
-
Locals began to protest outside of his department’s office, calling for wolves to be purged.—
Katherine J. Wu,
The Atlantic,
16 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Don’t neglect cleaning the interior of the air fryer.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
20 Feb. 2026
-
For instance, Data Engineers and Cloud Architects are now the essential architects of the digital age, cleaning and structuring the massive data sets that AI requires to function.—
Lyssanoel Frater,
USA Today,
20 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Cleanse.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cleanse. Accessed 24 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
