adjective
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serving to purify from sin
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of, relating to, or like purgatory
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of purgatorial
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.
Of all the offices a person might be required to visit, the Department of Motor Vehicles, with its purgatorial air, has one of the worst reputations.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 13, 2025
It feels even more pertinent knowing the organization’s purgatorial position in the standings makes the choice on whether to buy, sell or stand pat by the Aug. 1 trade deadline especially daunting.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 29, 2023
The cinematographer Agnès Godard shoots the wintry Swiss setting in desiccated blue tones, making the empty field between the line and the house look particularly purgatorial.
From New York Times • Mar. 30, 2023
It makes total sense that anyone would feel relieved with the death of someone they loved and had a complicated relationship because they're no longer in that purgatorial space with them.
From Salon • Aug. 21, 2022
A little later, downstairs in the lobby, which looked like some purgatorial setting, Nazario had assembled most of the tenants.
From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez
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.
