1
as in inferno
the place of punishment for the wicked after death
condemned to hell for their sins
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in nightmare
a situation or state that causes great suffering and unhappiness
picking cotton under the hot summer sun was hell
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in havoc
a state in which everything is out of order
all hell broke loose when the jury's verdict was announced
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hell
Brash, confident, possibly irreverent, and out there, looking to make life hell for everyone who played San Francisco.
—
Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 30 Mar. 2026
But Mike Johnson, leader of the House of Representatives, said hell no to what his Republicans in the Senate said yes to.
—CBS News, 29 Mar. 2026
Obviously, if that happened in my suburb in Maryland, all hell would break loose, pardon the French.
—Dana Taylor, USA Today, 25 Mar. 2026
And as any sci-fi or fantasy fan knows, prophecies can be hell.
—Chris McMullen, Space.com, 24 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for hell
Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 30 Mar. 2026
But Mike Johnson, leader of the House of Representatives, said hell no to what his Republicans in the Senate said yes to.
—CBS News, 29 Mar. 2026
Obviously, if that happened in my suburb in Maryland, all hell would break loose, pardon the French.
—Dana Taylor, USA Today, 25 Mar. 2026
And as any sci-fi or fantasy fan knows, prophecies can be hell.
—Chris McMullen, Space.com, 24 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for hell
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hell
Noun
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Even dramas depicting the city as an inferno of crime and decay added to its legend.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
-
Where exactly was that blazing inferno of passion on the diamond?—
Dieter Kurtenbach,
Mercury News,
30 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Their evident fondness for one another, glowing warmly alongside all their sniping and whispering and eye-rolling, allows all the nightmares in Big Mistakes to feel like a lark rather than an incipient calamity.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
10 Apr. 2026
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The couple's life has gone from something out of a postcard to the stuff of nightmares after Lynette Hooker went missing during a nighttime Bahamas boat trip.—
Nicole Fallert,
USA Today,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The aim is for Abdul to cause havoc in the United States, the West Bank and Iran.—
Oline H. Cogdill,
Sun Sentinel,
7 Apr. 2026
-
In the twentieth century, the same storms that made headlines in New York wreaked quieter havoc across the river.—
Eric Klinenberg,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Carrie makes the internal transfer on the system, moving me from my old role to my new one, ‘accidentally’ deletes the job listing from the website, and then rescues my employee profile from the digital abyss.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
8 Apr. 2026
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The person who survives the abyss is the one with a dozen people standing at the top holding a rope.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
31 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The agony of America’s post-1945 wars has been their gradual inducement of a sense of futility.—
Fintan O’Toole,
The New York Review of Books,
9 Apr. 2026
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As young fans gripped their face in agony, the older faces held their palms up in knowing shrugs.—
Beren Cross,
New York Times,
6 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Small improvements compound over the course of the day — picking up a mess here, choosing the healthier option there.—
Tarot.com,
New York Daily News,
8 Apr. 2026
-
The way the changing room was designed, Mitchell had to run through the galley-style showers to wash the mess off.—
Jordan Campbell,
New York Times,
8 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Misprisions of this kind were more likely to occur, the experts argued, in religious settings marked by the rigorous policing of strict ethical injunctions or an emphasis on particular states of mind as markers of grace or perdition.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Mar. 2026
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Sloth, after all, is a deadly sin, and it was often seen as the first step on the slippery slope to perdition.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
31 Oct. 2025
Noun
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And through all this, Saariaho’s elaborately beautiful orchestration scintillates, jabs, caresses, and swerves, giving all that vivid misery a sheen of lyric glamour.—
Justin Davidson,
Vulture,
7 Apr. 2026
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Fighting the obligations of motherhood leads to misery.—
Emma Green,
New Yorker,
6 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hell.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hell. Accessed 14 Apr. 2026.
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