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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Symptoms include high anxiety, avoidance of reminders of the trauma, emotional numbness, hypervigilance, frequent intrusive memories of trauma, nightmares and flashbacks.—
Arash Javanbakht,
The Conversation,
15 Sep. 2025 -
Now, the nightmares come to Switch 2.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
12 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
All’s well that metal-as-hells well.—
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
27 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
As rocks and curses flew from the street, bullets spat from the middle window on the south side of the house.—
Neal Rubin,
Freep.com,
6 Sep. 2025
-
Seth was given the job to create a list of curses and a list of clean words that Steve could shout.—
Ryan Gajewski,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Aug. 2025
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
-
More than a thousand miles away in New Delhi, Mohammad waits for his daughter, powerless to save her for a second time from the horrors faced by their community in Myanmar.—
Esha Mitra,
CNN Money,
14 Sep. 2025
-
Hard Rock Stadium is a house of horrors for the Patriots dating back to their dynasty days.—
Andrew Callahan,
Boston Herald,
13 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Kruse and Fialko invested seven figures into rebuilding Priscilla’s brand, stabilizing her finances, settling her lawsuits, cleaning up numerous private family ordeals, and attempting to help Priscilla repair her relationship with her daughter.—
Michaela Zee,
Variety,
13 Aug. 2025
Noun
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California is taking further steps to study the negative health effects firefighters face when battling blazes in increasingly urban environments in an effort to develop better protections for those on the front lines of fires.—
William Melhado,
Sacbee.com,
11 Sep. 2025
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Properties belonging to Sher Bahadur Deuba, the leader of the largest party in the Nepali Congress, Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak and Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal, were also targeted in the blazes.—
Greg Norman,
FOXNews.com,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
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But current virus variants continue to spread burning throats, fevers and other miseries.—
Grant Stringer,
Mercury News,
8 Sep. 2025
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Task begins by setting up the parallels between Tom and Robbie, two flawed men trying to keep their heads above the water of their own miseries, cutting back and forth between their routines to emphasize their similar ideologies and spontaneities.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
5 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Purgatories.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/purgatories. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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