purgation

[ pur-gey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act of purging.

purgation

/ pɜːˈɡeɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of purging or state of being purged; purification

Other Words From

• nonpur·gation noun
• super·pur·gation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of purgation¹

1325–75; Middle English purgacioun (< Anglo-French ) < Latin pūrgātiōn- (stem of pūrgātiō ) a cleansing, purging, equivalent to pūrgāt ( us ) (past participle of pūrgāre to make clean or pure, derivative of pūrus pure ) + -iōn- -ion

Example Sentences

Maybe it was something I needed to write for myself, a quiet purgation that I’d keep in the cold, dark storage of my laptop’s hard drive forever.

From Los Angeles Times

Subsequent audio files then move you from bedroom to bathroom to kitchen and back, exploring alimentation, purgation and other mundane aspects of the day-to-day.

From New York Times

Part of the fantasy of the baths has always been about the grace of purgation — this urge to slough away the lesser parts of ourselves and let our better selves emerge instead: rarefied, whittled, purified.

From New York Times

The seventh and eighth centuries saw the growth of teaching about an intermediate place where souls undergo purification and purgation.

From Salon

That means treating it as a possible purgation, a lesson in the insufficiency of human strategies and wisdom, and a reason to embrace T.S.

From New York Times