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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The warrant stated that one of the children has been diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety, and has also reported having nightmares about Busfield touching him.—
Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 10 Jan. 2026
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Jay Cutler is probably still having nightmares about it.—
Noun
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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.—
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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.—
Noun
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In Jujutsu Kaisen, heroic jujutsu sorcerers wage war against demonic creatures called curses and the curse users, who wield jujutsu powers for evil.—
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And as relief from one of the greatest curses imaginable – chronic pain – the neuro-key may offer pain modulation without the expense, side effects, and addiction risk of opioids and systemic drugs.—
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.—
Noun
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In simple, straightforward prose, Chang describes in new detail the horrors her parents suffered through during China's Cultural Revolution.—
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The horrors of the 1988 chapter open the door for a plot development that risks coming across as manipulative.—
Noun
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The medical ordeals are traumatic and disgusting, but fascinating and full of the quirks of modern life.—
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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.—
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.—
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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.—
Noun
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This is a childhood that had all its ordinariness burned out of it by the linking of even seemingly trivial gestures (an offering of candy, a bath, a swim, the dust in a corner of a room) to an entire array of physical and mental agonies.—
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Cite this Entry
“Purgatories.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/purgatories. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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