as in tormented
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as in afflicted
to cause persistent suffering to
plagued by a cough for all of last week
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Recent Examples of plagued
Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2026
Rodman was plagued by injury in 2025, using the first half of the year to recover from a lingering back issue.
—Melanie Anzidei, New York Times, 25 Jan. 2026
Remaking his body to avoid the health issues that plagued his first two seasons, resulting in two years with a clean bill of health.
—Adam Grosbard, Oc Register, 23 Jan. 2026
Mold, flooding, and barely functioning heaters have plagued a Berkeley building housing low-income students, and owners are scrambling to sell or find a way to manage $9 million in repairs the apartment complex needs.
—Hamza Adel Fahmy, Mercury News, 23 Jan. 2026
Meanwhile, the operation exacerbated a housing complex already in crisis, as deteriorating living conditions had plagued the building long before the agents arrived.
—Tess Kenny, Chicago Tribune, 22 Jan. 2026
Though all relationships are different, more often than not, they're plagued by the same problems and patterns, Shetty says.
—Charles Trepany, USA Today, 22 Jan. 2026
More recently, French taxi drivers attacked Uber vehicles in 2015, and arson attacks have plagued 5G cellphone towers in the 2020s.
—Craig S. Smith, Forbes.com, 21 Jan. 2026
But the hospital has been plagued by security issues in the last few years, and a contract dispute with the nurses’ union.
—Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 8 Jan. 2026
Verb
And the Rams were unable to overcome a special teams miscue, a theme that plagued them throughout the season.
—Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2026
Rodman was plagued by injury in 2025, using the first half of the year to recover from a lingering back issue.
—Melanie Anzidei, New York Times, 25 Jan. 2026
Remaking his body to avoid the health issues that plagued his first two seasons, resulting in two years with a clean bill of health.
—Adam Grosbard, Oc Register, 23 Jan. 2026
Mold, flooding, and barely functioning heaters have plagued a Berkeley building housing low-income students, and owners are scrambling to sell or find a way to manage $9 million in repairs the apartment complex needs.
—Hamza Adel Fahmy, Mercury News, 23 Jan. 2026
Meanwhile, the operation exacerbated a housing complex already in crisis, as deteriorating living conditions had plagued the building long before the agents arrived.
—Tess Kenny, Chicago Tribune, 22 Jan. 2026
Though all relationships are different, more often than not, they're plagued by the same problems and patterns, Shetty says.
—Charles Trepany, USA Today, 22 Jan. 2026
More recently, French taxi drivers attacked Uber vehicles in 2015, and arson attacks have plagued 5G cellphone towers in the 2020s.
—Craig S. Smith, Forbes.com, 21 Jan. 2026
But the hospital has been plagued by security issues in the last few years, and a contract dispute with the nurses’ union.
—Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 8 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plagued
Verb
-
Given the housing shortage that’s afflicted the whole country, the state, in 2024, revised the Postcard Law to allow for more construction, at least in certain areas.—
Jill Lepore,
New Yorker,
19 Jan. 2026
-
Eddie Vedder and his wife Jill founded the EB Research Partnership (EBRP) in 2010, a nonprofit dedicated to funding research to treat and cure the life-threatening disease, one that afflicted the child of Jill’s childhood friend.—
Peter White,
Deadline,
16 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Mattarella condemned the complicity of ordinary Italians in the fascist-era racial laws, which persecuted Italy’s Jewish community, and deportation of its Jews.—
Vanessa Gera,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Jan. 2026
-
The Kurds have been marginalized, persecuted and slaughtered by the likes of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and before those states existed, the Ottoman Empire.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
26 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Tears shed by frustrated children, burned out and exhausted.—
The Editorial Board,
Chicago Tribune,
22 Jan. 2026
-
Much of the address focused on the rising cost of living here and Healey's recent efforts to position herself as a champion of pocketbook relief at a time when voters across the country remain frustrated by high prices and economic uncertainty.—
Sam Drysdale,
CBS News,
22 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
When being tortured, name names.—
Keith McNally,
Vanity Fair,
20 Jan. 2026
-
Compared with the eight million Venezuelans who had fled the country, the nearly twenty thousand who had been detained for political reasons, the thousands who had been extrajudicially executed, and the hundreds who had been tortured, the deaths of a few dozen people seemed of little significance.—
Oriana van Praag,
New Yorker,
20 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Because being unemployed tends to make people quite aggravated and unhappy too.—
Culture Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
19 Jan. 2026
-
Hernandez, Espina and Napoles are all charged with home invasion robbery with a firearm, kidnapping and aggravated battery, court records show.—
Sofia Saric,
Miami Herald,
30 Dec. 2025
Verb
-
The militants at the time besieged it for months before being pushed back.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
23 Jan. 2026
-
To watch Herbert’s film is like watching a report on a place that has subsequently been besieged.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
23 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Jeff Probst reminds Mike White of Sisyphus, the mythological king cursed to spend eternity trying, and failing, to push an enormous boulder up a steep slope.—
David Canfield,
Vanity Fair,
20 Jan. 2026
-
Video from Fischer showed Bovino leaving the restroom area in the front of the store and walking out as people cursed at him to leave.—
Mara H. Gottfried,
Twin Cities,
12 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Projects will be judged on several criteria, including the project’s creativity and the use of tested and accurate AI.—
Jared Perlo,
NBC news,
4 Sep. 2025
-
Every batch of ice cream, even those with tested and confirmed recipes, requires a lot of tasting and adjusting.—
Maggie Hiufu Wong,
CNN Money,
5 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Plagued.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plagued. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.
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