purgatorial

[ pur-guh-tawr-ee-uhl, -tohr- ]

adjective

1. removing or purging sin; expiatory:

   purgatorial rites.

2. of, relating to, or like purgatory.

Other Words From

• non·purga·tori·al adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of purgatorial¹

First recorded in 1490–1500; purgatory + -al ¹

Example Sentences

If any one washes once in the lake, the sins of his forefathers are forgiven, and their souls are relieved from purgatorial fires.

From Project Gutenberg

All this vexation makes a cold and headache doubly intolerable, and I am in a most purgatorial state on this "good Sunday."

From Project Gutenberg

The speakers were a pair of old Purgatorial Twins, not without alleviations, designed by Nature to multiply.

From Project Gutenberg

The sallies of a Schopenhauer and a Nietzsche lack the purgatorial note which religious sadness gives forth.

From Project Gutenberg

Surely hell, the place of punishment and purgatorial expiation, is actually upon this earth in such cases.

From Project Gutenberg