purgation
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of purgation
1325–75; Middle English purgacioun (< Anglo-French ) < Latin pūrgātiōn- (stem of pūrgātiō ) a cleansing, purging, equivalent to pūrgāt ( us ) (past participle of pūrgāre to make clean or pure, derivative of pūrus pure ) + -iōn- -ion
Vocabulary lists containing purgation
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A post-death purifying fire seems a process of purgation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 6, 2025
Masli responded by dreaming up a ritual involving a sock that was set on fire in symbolic purgation of burdensome resentments.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 21, 2025
The experience was extraordinarily grueling — a stripping and peeling feeling, with each regimen creating a feeling of purgation, followed by temporary relief, followed by doing it all over again.
From New York Times • Oct. 30, 2021
The seventh and eighth centuries saw the growth of teaching about an intermediate place where souls undergo purification and purgation.
From Salon • Nov. 30, 2019
“You know quite well,” he said, “that trial by ordeal has been abolished, and, as for doing it by purgation, it would be impossible to find the necessary number of peers for a Queen.”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
