How to Use catharsis in a Sentence

catharsis

noun
  • Acting is a means of catharsis for her.
  • Painting is a catharsis for me.
  • There is no catharsis at the end of this.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2025
  • And there was a catharsis there.
    — Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • By the end, its lack of catharsis is the point.
    — Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 17 Feb. 2026
  • For those who’ve seen it, there’s been catharsis.
    — Clayton Davis, Variety, 31 Oct. 2025
  • Still, there is catharsis in a good scream, right?
    — Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Halsey’s songs seem to come from a place of pain or catharsis.
    — Joe Lynch, Billboard, 21 Oct. 2021
  • But the catharsis of their heart-to-hearts just feels so good!
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 15 Oct. 2019
  • Even Hillary got some catharsis.
    — Ronda Racha Penrice, HollywoodReporter, 12 Dec. 2025
  • The crowd, one that had thinned out as the deficit hit eight runs, reached catharsis.
    — Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 10 June 2026
  • Landis, for his part, views his new book as a form of catharsis.
    — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Oct. 2023
  • The movie that can wring catharsis out of that will be a long time coming.
    — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 22 Aug. 2017
  • Collins isn’t the only star who’s used hairstyling as catharsis.
    — Edward Segarra, USA TODAY, 22 Dec. 2022
  • There was relief, catharsis and joy.
    — James McNicholas, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2026
  • Purge and evolve; catharsis and release.
    — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 4 Dec. 2025
  • Everybody wants to have that form of catharsis in their lives.
    — Gordon Cox, Variety, 17 June 2023
  • At the same time, the novel speaks back to this desire for catharsis.
    — Will Boast, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 Apr. 2018
  • Speaking about it now has become a kind of catharsis.
    — Matt Bradley, NBC news, 14 May 2026
  • And don’t rely on catharsis for relief; anger just begets more anger.
    — Colleen De Bellefonds, SELF, 1 Dec. 2022
  • All of us Mary Pages have talked about the lack of catharsis in the play.
    — Barbara Chai, WSJ, 11 July 2018
  • This year, though, the movies might offer an even deeper kind of catharsis.
    — Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 17 Dec. 2021
  • By the end of the episode, most of our favorite surgeons have found at least some catharsis.
    — Laura Bradley, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024
  • Neely turned to art as a way to process her trauma, and some readers will find catharsis here.
    — Renata Sancken, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Sep. 2023
  • And making the film was, in a way, a form of catharsis before the event, which seems very strange.
    — Tim Grierson, Los Angeles Times, 12 Dec. 2022
  • These were obviously not the sort of tears that flowed from joy or catharsis.
    — Nick Moyle, San Antonio Express-News, 4 Mar. 2023
  • For that kind of dough a bit of catharsis is in order, maybe even a little terror.
    — David Weiss, Newsweek, 18 Oct. 2017
  • Gracia, in an act of catharsis, penned the story to mirror her life.
    — Holly Jones, Variety, 17 Mar. 2025
  • After this catharsis, Renia felt able to move on, to start afresh.
    — Judy Batalion, Time, 8 Apr. 2021
  • Just after this moment of catharsis, one of the theatre’s side doors opens.
    — Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'catharsis.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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