1
as in horrors
a situation or state that causes great suffering and unhappiness
waiting all those hours to hear if he'd survived the plane crash was pure agony
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in pains
a state of great suffering of body or mind
the agony of never knowing what happened to her son
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in explosions
a sudden intense expression of strong feeling
the announcement that the war was over unleashed a mass agony of joy
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of agonies
Hadi’s exceptional attention gives cinematic identity to collective artisanal energy, to the life force of care and devotion that stands outside the agonies of politics, to the spirit that endures a regime and outlives it.
—
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2026
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for agonies
Noun
-
Derry Girls, which followed teens in McGee’s native Derry in the years preceding 1998’s Good Friday Agreement, was a raucous, joke-dense show that juxtaposed mundane adolescent rites of passage with the daily horrors of life in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
13 Feb. 2026
-
Throughout, emotion churns and chafes against a backdrop of political unrest, corporate malfeasance, and the everyday horrors that erode modern life.—
Nina Corcoran,
Pitchfork,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
And not only through month-long vacations and pains au chocolat.—
Hannah Seligson,
Vanity Fair,
12 Feb. 2026
-
The Guy, as Sinclair is known on the show, sells to everyone, stressed-out 20-something assistant and cross-dressing stay-at-home dad alike, witnessing their private joys and pains and shortcomings and judging no one.—
Ezra Marcus,
Vulture,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Ukrainian officials said powerful explosions and secondary detonations were recorded at the site, while the extent of damage was still being assessed.—
Efrat Lachter,
FOXNews.com,
13 Feb. 2026
-
But these explosions do not trigger a nuclear chain reaction.—
Geoff Brumfiel,
NPR,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Ilia Malinin’s collapse underscores the crushing psychological pressure of Olympic competition, which can turn childhood dreams into nightmares, even for elite athletes.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Feb. 2026
-
Most of them are oddly charged, dramatically staged images meant to evoke dreams, nightmares, or fantasies.—
Vince Aletti,
New Yorker,
14 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
For his courtroom outbursts, Davis found Thompson in contempt of court and added a little more than four and a half years to his sentence.—
Monroe Trombly,
Louisville Courier Journal,
10 Feb. 2026
-
An audience member was removed at one point for outbursts during remarks by commissioner Carrie Prejean, who rejected notions that anti-Zionism equates to antisemitism.—
BrieAnna J. Frank,
USA Today,
9 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
This week’s massive winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on at least 19 states, including those like Texas and Tennessee that are less prepared to deal with the miseries of winter weather.—
Amy Feldman,
Forbes.com,
28 Jan. 2026
-
The victims of prejudice and inequality are always the best guardians of the ramparts that sustain those miseries.—
Cressida Leyshon,
New Yorker,
23 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Also, some bursts showed strong circular polarization, a signal characteristic of magnetic processes.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
1 Feb. 2026
-
Hulu has steadily built a library of bold, thought-provoking miniseries that have managed to entertain audiences in short bursts.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
31 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Former Jews deemed insufficiently converted faced the Spanish Inquisition’s tortures.—
David Bloom,
Forbes.com,
17 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Agonies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/agonies. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
