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Word History of Catharsis and Cathartic
Catharsis and cathartic both trace to the Greek word kathairein, meaning “to cleanse, purge.” Catharsis entered English as a medical term having to do with purging the body—and especially the bowels—of unwanted material. The adjective cathartic entered English with a meaning descriptive of such a physically cleansing purge. It didn’t take long for people to start using these words figuratively in reference to emotional release and spiritual cleansing.
Examples of cathartic in a Sentence
Michael Farber, Sports Illustrated, 28 Jan. 2002
But Vietnam is hard to sell as a tidy, cathartic morality tale of troubled times overcome.
—Jennifer Homans, New Republic, 2 & 9 Dec. 2002
Many veterans, at first reluctant to speak, ultimately uncorked their emotions in a cathartic explosion.
—Stanley Karnow, New York Times Book Review, 22 Nov. 1992
It provokes no healthy tears, whereas Cervantes never fails … to open the cathartic floodgates.
—Anthony Burgess, Homage to Qwert Yuiop: Selected Journalism 1978-1985, 1986
Frank Digiacomo, Billboard, 23 Oct. 2024
Every album she’s done has its own shape and feel — from her prodigious 2018 breakthrough, Clean, to her 2020 meditation on broken nostalgia, Color Theory, to 2022’s darker, more noisily cathartic Sometimes, Forever.
—Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone, 23 Oct. 2024
Molly Longman, refinery29.com, 11 Jan. 2021
See all Example Sentences for cathartic 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cathartic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near cathartic
Cite this Entry
“Cathartic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cathartic. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
cathartic
1 of 2 adjective
cathartic
2 of 2 noun
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