as in frightening
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Recent Examples of persecutory
For example, Americans living during World War II developed persecutory delusions involving Germans, while those living during the Cold War focused on communists.
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Alaina Vandervoort Burns, The Conversation, 17 Dec. 2025
Alaina Vandervoort Burns, The Conversation, 17 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for persecutory
Adjective
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What began as a quiet evening quickly turned frightening after the couple climbed onto the jetty rocks to look for shells and crabs.—
Ashley Vega,
PEOPLE,
11 June 2026
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By the time of The Social Reckoning, a website that was once used to rate the attractiveness of women has gone on to disrupt global politics on a frightening scale.—
Brianna Zigler,
Entertainment Weekly,
10 June 2026
Adjective
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Furthermore, Kalambay casts doubt on the idea that Ilunga was fearful for his own or his family’s life.—
Nick Miller,
New York Times,
17 June 2026
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Some in the diaspora are fearful of being openly associated with one side or another of a bitter divide over the United States’ military action.—
Suhauna Hussain,
Los Angeles Times,
16 June 2026
Adjective
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The disregard for one’s health is terrifying.—
Stephanie Sengwe,
PEOPLE,
9 Dec. 2025
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The woman who survived a terrifying accident on the Stevenson Expressway last week is speaking out about the incident.—
Marissa Sulek,
CBS News,
9 Dec. 2025
Adjective
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It is recommended to alternate between the steam and ice shower, which drops to a chilling 46 degrees.—
Spencer Whaley,
Forbes.com,
21 Aug. 2025
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Hydrating and chilling inside if possible are critical through August 22 from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, officials say.—
Janet Wilson,
USA Today,
21 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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But the idea of transferring to a new school was scary.—
Susan Svrluga,
Washington Post,
15 June 2026
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It's been scary, and it's been really hard to navigate.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
14 June 2026
Adjective
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Silva said the single most alarming aspect of the report was the lack of information available to emergency responders.—
Ivan Taylor,
CBS News,
11 June 2026
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In the years following 2020, cities nationwide experienced alarming increases in homicides, shootings and other crime as the COVID-19 pandemic upended daily life, destabilized local economies and deepened distrust in public institutions.—
Diane Goldstein,
Chicago Tribune,
10 June 2026
Adjective
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The companies try to slow down this process by submerging it in oil, but the resulting flavor is horrible.—
Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner,
Martha Stewart,
13 June 2026
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Any justice in the community would praise this murderer’s row of craftspeople working on the production design for the period town setting; makeup, especially Pennywise’s horrible face; sound design, for helping to keep the audio terrors churning along; and the costume work.—
William Earl,
Variety,
11 June 2026
Adjective
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The brisk, nasty chill cast by the film may prove divisive; ditto its unapologetically ghastly characters.—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
4 June 2026
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From a certain perspective, the traps that Ibsen had laid for his characters were hilariously well made, and the one character who got the ghastly humor within the play itself was Hedda.—
Jonathan Franzen,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Persecutory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/persecutory. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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