purgatory
/ˈpɝɡəˌtɔɹi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.10 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any situation where suffering is endured, particularly as part of a process of redemption.
Countable; Uncountable
name
An intermediate state after death in which some of those ultimately destined for Heaven must first undergo purification.
Example Sentences
- "the purgatory of lost love"
- "[…] many Gods breedeth heathens miseries, many countries trauailers humors, many wiues mens purgatories, and many friends trustes ruine:"
- "I laid my rank and fortune at the fair one’s feet, and would have married instantly; but that Oldworth opposed my precipitancy, and insisted upon a probation of six months absence—It has been a purgatory!"
- "It might be […] that Ruth had worked her way through the deep purgatory of repentance up to something like purity again; God only knew!"
- "Later came midsummer, with the stifling heat, when the dingy killing beds of Durham’s became a very purgatory; one time, in a single day, three men fell dead from sunstroke."
- "[…] that would mean he would be irrecoverably Afrikaans and would have to spend years in the purgatory of an Afrikaans boarding-school, as all farm-children do, before he would be allowed to come back to the farm."
Etymology
From Middle English purgatorie, from Old French purgatore, purgatorie, from Latin purgātōrium (“cleansing”). Cognate to English purge.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *pewH-, purgatorie, purgatore, purgātōrium
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɝɡəˌtɔɹi/
- British English: /ˈpɜːɡət(ə)ɹi/