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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Eidinger is perfect for the role, and his escalating temper tantrums — almost camp at first, with delicious echoes of Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa — become frightening in their intensity.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
18 May 2026
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But at Medley Club, residents never lost power during the entire frightening ordeal.—
Jeffrey Steele,
Forbes.com,
18 May 2026
Adjective
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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
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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
Adjective
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Places like Kwigillingok and Kipnuk are stuck — wanting to rebuild and move on, but fearful of the next storm.—
Ella Nilsen,
CNN Money,
17 May 2026
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Tate said that is probably because people like how things are going and are generally fearful of change.—
Fousia Abdullahi,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
15 May 2026
Adjective
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For Orlo Vista residents, the disaster unfolded with terrifying speed.—
Greg Bennett,
The Orlando Sentinel,
24 May 2026
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Nicholls opened Rockwater not long after Cyclone Pam, a terrifying storm that churned through Vanuatu and inflicted $600 million in damage.—
Christopher Elliott,
Forbes.com,
23 May 2026
Adjective
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One year before his television empire began with Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan wrote and directed this absorbing neo-Western mystery about the chilling death of an 18-year-old Native American young woman.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
22 May 2026
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The coroner’s report is chilling, listing multiple factors besides cardiac arrest that figured in her death.—
Christopher Bonanos,
Curbed,
22 May 2026
Adjective
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Part of what makes Nikki so scary is that these intense moments seem to come out of nowhere.—
Louis Peitzman,
Vulture,
18 May 2026
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Two friends from Auburn and Berkeley were meeting halfway for a picnic in Sacramento but said even driving there in the strong wind was scary.—
Kayla Moeller,
CBS News,
18 May 2026
Adjective
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The effort comes amid an alarming rise in gray whale deaths in the bay.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
20 May 2026
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The trend that was most alarming to me was that young people stopped coming out.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
20 May 2026
Adjective
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Which is horrible, just that amount of women being murdered.—
Ellise Shafer,
Variety,
17 May 2026
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Hmmm, a book about climate change, economic hardship, labor shortages, rising food prices, and a family having a horrible time?—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
15 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Persecutory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/persecutory. Accessed 24 May. 2026.
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