How to Use purgatory in a Sentence
purgatory
noun- The marathons were jokingly referred to as one-day purgatories.
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But how can artists break out of this pop star purgatory?
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Brittany Luse,
NPR,
29 May 2026
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Four straight years stuck in play-in purgatory can do that.
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Miami Herald,
23 June 2026
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Beane strived to avoid salary-cap purgatory.
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Tim Graham,
New York Times,
13 Feb. 2026
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And as his team was stuck in purgatory, the ledger hasn't looked so great lately.
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Shawn Windsor,
Detroit Free Press,
8 July 2018
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But where does that leave us, the poor souls stuck in a housing world that feels a lot like purgatory?
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Alena Botros,
Fortune,
18 Sep. 2024
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But being stuck in a tiny hotel room for most of a year has verged on purgatory.
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Emma Batha,
The Christian Science Monitor,
10 Aug. 2022
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Not bad for a franchise that not long ago looked to be stuck in passer purgatory.
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Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz,
USA TODAY,
6 Mar. 2023
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In both instances, Kevin has died and is in a kind of a purgatory.
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Michael Sebastian,
Esquire,
15 May 2017
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The biggest unknown is how long we will be left in purgatory.
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Sarah Zhang,
The Atlantic,
11 Dec. 2020
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There is no Heaven or hell, just death and purgatory, over and over again.
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Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
24 Oct. 2024
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Trying to inch up out of play-in purgatory and matter.
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Greg Cote
january 30,
Miami Herald,
30 Jan. 2026
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And then there are buttons in purgatory.
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Tc Sottek,
The Verge,
27 May 2026
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That is a recipe for pilot purgatory.
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Drew Cukor,
Fortune,
11 May 2026
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Recent weeks have brought a new kind of purgatory for tourism workers in the region.
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Brooks Barnes,
BostonGlobe.com,
29 June 2020
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Those of us in the gallery found ourselves in some version of that purgatory as well—at once drawn in and kept on the fringes.
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Leslie Jamison,
The Atlantic,
6 Nov. 2019
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But for solo travelers, the back of the plane can feel like purgatory.
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Christopher Elliott,
Forbes.com,
2 Aug. 2025
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Fail to heed the instructions, and you’ll be trapped in this urban purgatory with no way out.
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David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
10 Apr. 2026
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As the weeks went on, the purgatory of Changing Lanes got worse.
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Emily Gogolak,
Harper's Magazine,
2 Feb. 2024
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Uvalde was — and has been, Medrano said — in a sort of purgatory ever since.
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Arelis R. Hernández,
Washington Post,
25 May 2023
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Too sick to return to the wild, the bile bears’ futures were in purgatory, with years left in their life spans but nowhere to go.
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Ryley Graham,
Smithsonian Magazine,
4 June 2025
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Most of these have so far failed to make it to the screen and withered in development purgatory.
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Brent Lang,
Variety,
5 Apr. 2024
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In purgatory, one on her way up the escalator, the other on her way down?
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Joe Reid,
Vulture,
11 Jan. 2024
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Barring a miracle this will be four straight years in the mediocrity that is play-in purgatory.
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Greg Cote
april 6,
Miami Herald,
6 Apr. 2026
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Most projects die in pilot purgatory.
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Jaime Catmull,
Forbes.com,
22 Aug. 2025
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That those of us not trapped in the hell of mourning the dead have been languishing in a purgatory of smaller griefs.
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Jonathan Kauffman,
Bon Appétit,
13 Apr. 2022
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That means thinking beyond the bar and the counter, often a purgatory of sorts for single guests.
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Dax Dasilva,
Forbes,
29 Oct. 2024
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Years of grinding have led them all to this point, with the end of the Championship purgatory in sight.
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Jordan Campbell,
The Athletic,
26 Feb. 2025
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In the two decades since then, the rights to the computer and its software suite have been sold off and stuck in legal purgatory.
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John Wenz,
Popular Mechanics,
3 Oct. 2017
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Worried, Claudia stayed in the camp with Joseph, in purgatory once more.
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Eli Cahan,
Rolling Stone,
23 July 2022
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'purgatory.' 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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