purgation
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- nonpurgation noun
- superpurgation noun
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
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
Maybe it was something I needed to write for myself, a quiet purgation that I’d keep in the cold, dark storage of my laptop’s hard drive forever.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 26, 2022
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
That means treating it as a possible purgation, a lesson in the insufficiency of human strategies and wisdom, and a reason to embrace T.S.
From New York Times • Nov. 9, 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.
