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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Another memorable station in my suspicious/contrarian reading life, but minus points for the nightmares.—
Brittany Allen,
Literary Hub,
8 Sep. 2025 -
Well, the dearth of new functionality means 25H2 won’t create any compatibility nightmares or require a lengthy install process with multiple restarts.—
Michael Muchmore,
PC Magazine,
7 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
All’s well that metal-as-hells well.—
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
27 Aug. 2025
Noun
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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
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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
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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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All Quiet on the Western Front is a visually graphic portrayal of the horrors of war, earning four Academy Awards in 2023 — including Best International Feature Film.—
Jacqueline Weiss,
PEOPLE,
7 Sep. 2025
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Kelley is chastised and eventually replaced by Gustave Gilbert (Colin Hanks), a rival psychologist with a different take, one that opposes Kelley’s more humanistic approach in defining the horrors of that time.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
7 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
-
The blazes are part of what Cal Fire has named the TCU Lightning Complex Fire.—
Bill Hutchinson,
ABC News,
4 Sep. 2025
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While wildfire season in Arizona used to arrive in spring and reliably end by the monsoon, fire seasons have turned into fire years as the blazes become more erratic and frequent.—
John Leos,
AZCentral.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Rather than taking the newcomers in, Friedrich leads them to some distant caves and trusts that the miseries of island life—extreme heat, torrential rains, pesky insects, vicious dogs—will soon send them packing.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
26 Aug. 2025
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The reductive, conventional wisdom in the party held that nonwhite voters, especially Hispanic Americans, would be the key to a new Democratic national majority after the party’s miseries in the post-9/11 world.—
Chris Stirewalt,
The Hill,
19 Aug. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Purgatories.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/purgatories. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.
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