1
as in infernos
a temporary place or state in which the souls of people who die make amends for their sins
It was a summer job that felt like purgatory to the teen.
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2
as in nightmares
a place or state of temporary suffering
We found ourselves trapped in the purgatory of a rush-hour traffic jam.
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for purgatories
Noun
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Kayce’s days are spent wrangling horses, and his evenings being haunted by nightmares of tragedies past.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
27 Feb. 2026 -
Audre Lorde kept track of her nightmares and talked about going from the nightmare to the poem.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
17 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Smith stays largely mum on the news of the day, be that Kirk’s killing, or ICE raids, or whatever hells await in the coming weeks.—
Sam Kestenbaum,
Vulture,
2 Jan. 2026
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The protagonist's youth doesn't defang the story, as Silent Hill f wastes no time thrusting Hinako and her friends into their personal hells.—
Zackery Cuevas,
PC Magazine,
23 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Pay multiple people from the crafts site Etsy to perform tarot readings, lift any existing curses and otherwise engage in witchcraft.—
Tyler Estep,
AJC.com,
4 Mar. 2026
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Indeed, various curses and slurs could be heard shouted from the audience at London's Royal Festival Hall, even during some segments broadcast to audiences in England and abroad.—
Ryan Coleman,
Entertainment Weekly,
22 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
For Aronofsky, the city’s ethnic blend has no special claim on virtue; there seem to be as many criminal underworlds as there are demographic groups.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
28 Aug. 2025
Noun
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William Grimes wrote before that moment, introducing a distinctly American voice shaped by the horrors of enslavement in the South and the precariousness of freedom in the North.—
Regina E. Mason,
The Atlantic,
7 Mar. 2026
-
At the time, France, led by President Jacques Chirac, could not countenance supporting an attack on Saddam Hussein, given the weak evidence for either weapons of mass destruction or a link to the horrors of 9/11.—
Kamal Ahmed,
Fortune,
6 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
The medical ordeals are traumatic and disgusting, but fascinating and full of the quirks of modern life.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA Today,
8 Jan. 2026
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Both women survived, but are still reeling from ordeals that have drawn national attention — in part, because they were captured on video and shared on social media.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
3 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Jean-Pierre is an artifact of an age that looks recent on paper but feels prehistoric in practice—the age of pantsuits, the word ’empowerment,’ the musical Hamilton, the cheap therapeutic entreaties to ‘work on yourself’ and ‘lean in’ to various corporate abysses.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
17 Dec. 2025
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On the other side of the country, Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, a longtime reader favorite, is a warm alternative to sterile airport abysses.—
Hannah Towey,
Condé Nast Traveler,
4 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Hadi’s exceptional attention gives cinematic identity to collective artisanal energy, to the life force of care and devotion that stands outside the agonies of politics, to the spirit that endures a regime and outlives it.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
10 Feb. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Purgatories.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/purgatories. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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