1
as in painful
hard to accept or bear especially emotionally
it was a tormenting moment as they helplessly watched the other team score in the final seconds of the game
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in torturing
intensely or unbearably painful
a tormenting injury
Synonyms & Similar Words
as in plaguing
to cause persistent suffering to
he was tormented by nightmares about the accident
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tormenting
Adjective
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Whether a client hires a single architect to design a house or a team to work on a downtown plan with multiple community stakeholders, the architect-client relationship is rarely one of a painful struggle.—
Matt Shaw,
Forbes,
28 Feb. 2025 -
Throughout her childhood, Dee Dee subjected her Gypsy-Rose to years of painful medical procedures that were not needed.—
Angel Saunders,
People.com,
28 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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Immigration advocates call the crackdown cruel and wrongheaded and warn that many Latino U.S. citizens will likely suffer violations of their civil rights and possibly even get mistakenly deported.—
Dave Goldiner,
New York Daily News,
6 Mar. 2025
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As mere surrogates, the Trump-DeSantis fight to outdo each other through mean and cruel policies will go on.—
Letters to the Editor,
Orlando Sentinel,
6 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
The Lombardi is more Holy Grail than trophy, the end of what can only be described as a torturous emotional pilgrimage.—
Ali Watkins,
New York Times,
8 Feb. 2025
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Getting rid of the death penalty also would bring a close to these torturous years of appeals for so many of us.—
Yaakov Katz,
Newsweek,
7 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
Perhaps no vote was as agonizing for Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican and medical doctor, than his vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump’s health secretary.—
Sheryl Gay Stolberg,
New York Times,
6 Mar. 2025
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Otherwise, we’ll still be mired in this same agonizing debate.—
Sammy Roth,
Los Angeles Times,
6 Mar. 2025
Verb
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An audacious plan In the mid-1980s, global health agencies were otherwise occupied and heads of state largely overlooked the illness afflicting millions of their citizens.—
Sam Mednick,
Chicago Tribune,
30 Dec. 2024
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The United States now suffers from twin pathologies—one afflicting the health of its citizens and the other the health of its political system.—
Thomas J. Bollyky,
Foreign Affairs,
30 Jan. 2020
Adjective
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The 79-year-old Oscar winner embraces the challenging role of the Dutton family matriarch alongside co-star Harrison Ford, confronting everything from mountain lions to the harsh realities of frontier life.—
Holly Williams,
CBS News,
28 Feb. 2025
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Her lyric vocal writing contends with harsh reality, but her style is never far from profound rapture.—
Mark Swed,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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In late 2019, sudden, excruciating pain in my pelvis sent me to the emergency room.—
Katrina Martin,
Health,
4 Mar. 2025
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The finish is long on the palate with an excruciating persistence of coal and extinguished forest fire.—
Emily Price,
Forbes,
1 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The intense gravitational pull from the black hole rips the two stars apart, capturing one star into a close orbit around it, notes the center.—
Bruce Dorminey,
Forbes,
8 Mar. 2025
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This film transitions between moments of intense governmental and political drama, and moments of sympathetic, emotional anguish with the Hernandez family.—
Addie Morfoot,
Variety,
8 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Tormenting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tormenting. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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