as in harshness
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for oppressiveness
Noun
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The tinted visor that Morgan Geekie wore for two games against the Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars in January could help mute the lights’ harshness.—
Fluto Shinzawa,
New York Times,
1 Feb. 2026 -
Seoul 1988 Retinal Eye Cream Viral for using retinal (stronger than retinol) in a liposome delivery system for smoother texture without harshness.—
Corein Carter,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Almost: Childhood is both bliss and terror, and the Richard D. James Album takes care to wrap malevolence and innocence tightly into the same steel coil.—
Sasha Geffen,
Pitchfork,
21 Jan. 2026
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There are cheerful barging amateurs, happy to be bounced about, and there are prowling malevolences, waiting for the moment to blindside someone or chuck an elbow in their face.—
James Parker,
The Atlantic,
16 Dec. 2025
Noun
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The heavy-handedness provoked a public backlash, and Disney, faced with skyrocketing rates of subscription cancellations, reinstated the late-night host.—
Quinta Jurecic,
The Atlantic,
20 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Comment sections have always attracted hatefulness and resentment; these ones just happen to encourage it more explicitly.—
Rebecca Jennings,
Vulture,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
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His Cyrano is the play’s hero, even if the character’s psychological limitations are as much a factor in the story as the machinations of De Guiche, whose malignity is sent up in Nathanson’s flamboyantly comic turn.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Sep. 2024
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For a decade, the central drama of Trumpism has concerned the Republican élites who continued to support him—the story has been about their malignity, or opportunism, or willful moral blindness.—
Benjamin Wallace-Wells,
The New Yorker,
16 Sep. 2023
Noun
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The guy was a sleaze, but there’s a pretty big gap between sleaziness and murderousness.—
Sophie Brookover,
Vulture,
12 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Happily, there are pleasures that precede this grimness.—
Helen Shaw,
New Yorker,
18 Dec. 2025
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Even in the grimness of war, the photographer manages to find beauty in his subjects.—
Hikmat Mohammed,
Footwear News,
20 Oct. 2025
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“Oppressiveness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/oppressiveness. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.
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