persecutive

adjective

Definition of persecutivenext
as in frightening

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for persecutive
  1. frightening
  2. persecutory
  3. scary
  4. chilling
  5. harassing
  6. formidable
  7. terrifying
  8. terrible
Adjective
  • Obviously there’s day to day stuff but to me, that’s just another frightening thing about being trapped in a system.
    — Caroline Reilly, Forbes.com, 10 July 2026
  • Cortlandt Koerwitz/Instagram A family's Fourth of July outing took a frightening turn when a bear charged at a father outside his Lake Tahoe vacation home after startling his daughters.
    — Shafiq Najib, ABC News, 9 July 2026
Definition of frightening
Adjective
  • For example, Americans living during World War II developed persecutory delusions involving Germans, while those living during the Cold War focused on communists.
    — Alaina Vandervoort Burns, The Conversation, 17 Dec. 2025
Definition of persecutory
Adjective
  • Some of them are scary, but some of them, harnessed correctly, might help us with some very human problems that pre-date the emergence of the LLM.
    — John Werner, Forbes.com, 11 July 2026
  • But, if people have been suffering from the elevated air temperatures, the really scary numbers come from the ocean sensors.
    — Bill McKibben, New Yorker, 9 July 2026
Definition of scary
Adjective
  • Made-from-scratch cheesecake doesn’t seem so hard when made as cupcakes where there’s no water bath, springform pan, and long chilling time required.
    — Brennan Long, Southern Living, 3 July 2026
  • Bell on Wednesday reaffirmed his support for Florida’s institutional neutrality policies, which discourages university leaders from taking official positions on political issues in an effort to avoid chilling debate among students and faculty.
    — Garrett Shanley, Miami Herald, 1 July 2026
Definition of chilling
Adjective
  • The first complaint, in which a clerk made similar accusations of abusive and harassing conduct, was filed with the circuit court in 2022, not long after Merriam’s appointment.
    — Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 1 Jan. 2026
  • The line is crossed when someone’s conduct at work becomes disrespectful, harassing, intimidating, discriminatory, or disruptive to the team.
    — Johnny C. Taylor Jr, USA Today, 30 Dec. 2025
Definition of harassing
Adjective
  • England faces a formidable challenge against Mexico in the FIFA World Cup knockout round, playing at Estadio Azteca, 7,220 feet above sea level.
    — Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes.com, 5 July 2026
  • However, there is arguably no matchup currently more daunting than a game against this formidable France side.
    — Ben Church, CNN Money, 4 July 2026
Definition of formidable
Adjective
  • But getting that fissile material off the launchpad safely remains a terrifying engineering hurdle.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 10 July 2026
  • After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides with Prodigy City, Wendy and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.
    — Rosy Cordero, Deadline, 9 July 2026
Definition of terrifying
Adjective
  • With all the terrible news of layoffs and that the games industry is in a dire state, some people online have said a crash is the only way to fix things.
    — Ollie Barder, Forbes.com, 8 July 2026
  • With Te Fiti gone, a terrible darkness began slowly taking hold of the islands and their surrounding waters.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 8 July 2026
Definition of terrible
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.

Browse Nearby Words

persecutions
persecutive
persecutor
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Cite this Entry

“Persecutive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/persecutive. Accessed 15 Jul. 2026.

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