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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But that depiction was picked apart by a vast array of online onlookers, from law enforcement experts to ordinary Instagram users, some of whom replayed the videos frame by frame and zoomed in to show the episode in frightening detail.—
Brian Stelter,
CNN Money,
25 Jan. 2026
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The news this week that CPW employees are facing a variety of threats from radical elements in both groups of Coloradans strikes us as ironic sad — and frightening.—
The Denver Post Editorial Board,
Denver Post,
24 Jan. 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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Alberto Carvalho said promoting outside play is especially important for children after the city was roiled by immigration raids and many fearful parents kept families indoors.—
Christopher Buchanan,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Jan. 2026
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This is an inevitable consequence of both political parties, fearful of their extremes, punting for years on an immigration policy that secured the borders and offered a path forward for those who have been here for years and likely now reside in families of mixed citizenship status.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
26 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Pregnancy and birth carry its own battles and terrifying statistics.—
Kayla Grant,
PEOPLE,
31 Jan. 2026
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The editorial board then throws in the new scare tactic for good measure at the end, claiming that there is some terrifying epidemic of puking, screaming and hospitalizations as the result of THC use (relying on spotty data, none of which has been linked to THC beverages).—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
31 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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This is a chilling history of a problem still ravaging significant swaths of America — not to mention elsewhere in the world.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
31 Jan. 2026
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Those words may be the most chilling of all.—
Bill Goodykoontz,
AZCentral.com,
30 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Director Marianna Bassham loves working on pieces that are a bit scary.—
Courtney Cole,
CBS News,
27 Jan. 2026
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George Price wasn’t some scary underworld figure.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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The Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance, alarming Canada, which shares a 3,000-kilometer (1,864 mile) maritime border with Greenland in the Arctic.—
Rob Gillies,
Fortune,
28 Jan. 2026
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This is not just an alarming new attack that has caused chaos across the iWorld.—
Zak Doffman,
Forbes.com,
27 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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The killing and execution of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and the horrible lies perpetuated by this government are abhorrent.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
30 Jan. 2026
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Someone should start talking about improving the state’s horrible inability to attract fellow Americans.—
Jonathan Lansner,
Oc Register,
30 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Persecutory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/persecutory. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
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