as in agony
a situation or state that causes great suffering and unhappiness
that 20-page exam was a nightmare
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in horrific
extremely disturbing or repellent
survivors of a nuclear holocaust would surely face a nightmare existence
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of nightmare
Max Goldbart, Deadline, 18 Feb. 2025
They ultimately got married and returned in season 2 for a vacation at the White Lotus in Sicily, but their romantic trip turned into a fatal nightmare for Tanya since Greg hired men to kill her in order to inherit all her money.
—Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 17 Feb. 2025
South Carolina presents a matchup nightmare for the Huskies with one of the deepest benches in the country, headlined by an elite front-court rotation.
—Emily Adams, Hartford Courant, 15 Feb. 2025
At a time when real life can feel like a nightmare, a collective turn toward the ghoulish and the ghastly might seem counterintuitive, but the Gothic genre has always offered a space to examine the darkest corners of the human psyche.
—M.l. Rio, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for nightmare
Noun
What felt at the time like a nightmare is now the cause of a great deal of introspection.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for nightmare
Noun
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As Dieter screamed in agony, Kier fled to the waterfall to escape the sound.—
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The woman continued to experience abdominal pain for years after her procedure, but the source of the agony could not be explained by her doctors, the lawsuit said.—
Adjective
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Once the fighting stops the horrific Russian losses of men and machines become daily additions to the armed forces.—
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On the left, contemporary progressives have denounced the original progressive for his horrific opinions of black Americans.—
Noun
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Isn’t a life without mountains of money better than a life monopolized by misery?—
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The act led to retaliatory tariffs by other countries and is widely seen as exacerbating the economic misery of the Depression.—
Adjective
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The gruesome murder occurred after an argument about fraudulent credit card charges, prosecutors said.—
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Over everything hovers the gruesome mystery of birth, that unnerving manifestation of female destiny by which a small person is formed within a larger one and bursts out like the alien in Alien.—
Noun
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My biggest problem with most horror movies is that there is always a solution at the end.—
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Another 20th title, the Sam Raimi horror movie Send Help starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, will open on January 30, 2026.—
Adjective
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Head coach Kevin O'Connell won Coach of the Year after the team secured a shocking 14-3 record.—
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The escalating tension of that final act is as shocking and violent and viciously cold as anything in Franco’s filmography, which has seldom shied away from stark depictions of human cruelty — whether intimate in scale, like After Lucia, or encompassing explosive societal conflict, like New Order.—
Noun
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Survivors describe conditions akin to modern slavery, with physical abuse and even torture being common.—
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The site is known for holding terrorists involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks and has faced numerous allegations of torture and abuse by U.S. officials.—
Adjective
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There are so many horrible things happening in the world.—
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While much of the criticism of HSR has come from inside California, the project’s horrible reputation is gaining national attention.—
Cite this Entry
“Nightmare.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nightmare. Accessed 28 Feb. 2025.
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