1. plural of purgatory; states or places of temporary suffering or punishment for purification
Usage: religious
2. situations involving great suffering, torment, or misery
Usage: figurative

Examples

• Different religions describe various purgatories where souls are cleansed.
• The waiting rooms felt like purgatories for anxious patients.
• Medieval texts depicted multiple purgatories with different levels of punishment.
• The refugee camps became purgatories of uncertainty and despair.
• She escaped the purgatories of her troubled childhood.
• The novel explores imaginary purgatories between life and death.