purgatory

1. 1.

   a temporary condition of torment or suffering

   “a purgatory of drug abuse”

   Broadersituation
2. 2.

   (theology) in Roman Catholic theology the place where those who have died in a state of grace undergo limited torment to expiate their sins

   Broaderimaginary place

   theology

Other forms of purgatory

plural

purgatories·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about purgatory

What does purgatory mean?

purgatory means "a temporary condition of torment or suffering". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in purgatory?

purgatory has 4 syllables: pur-ga-to-ry. The stress falls on "pur". In IPA it is /ˈpɝɡəˌtɔɹi/.

Is purgatory a common word?

purgatory is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with purgatory?

59 words rhyme with purgatory. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.