French Conversation · Level 58
75 words
French word
purgatoire
Pronunciation
IPA/pyʁgatwaʁ/
Meaning
- masculine nounpurgatory
Example
Il croit au purgatoire.
He believes in purgatory.
More examples
Les retards successifs ont transformé la semaine en un vrai purgatoire.
The successive delays turned the week into a real purgatory.
Core concept
A temporary spiritual threshold where suffering removes what still separates a soul from paradise.
Common phrases
un vrai purgatoire
a real purgatory
être au purgatoire
be in purgatory
Similar words
paradis: A place believed to offer eternal happiness after death.
enfer: A place believed to bring lasting suffering after death.
Definition in French
Lieu ou état intermédiaire, selon la tradition catholique, où l'âme subit une purification avant d'entrer au paradis.
Word origin
French purgatoire comes through Old French from Medieval Latin purgatorium, a noun related to purgare, meaning 'to purify'.
Usage tips
- Purgatoire is masculine, so the standard forms are le purgatoire and au purgatoire, not la purgatoire or à le purgatoire.
Opposites
- paradisparadisenoun