How to Use catharsis in a Sentence
catharsis
noun- Acting is a means of catharsis for her.
- Painting is a catharsis for me.
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As soon as we emerged from the gates of the White House, I became aware of that sea of faces. … I wanted to cry for them and with them, but it was impossible to permit the catharsis of tears.
— Lady Bird Johnson, 24 Nov. 1963 -
The fact of killing has carried a sort of catharsis with it.
— John Dos Passos, National Review, 28 Sep. 2020 -
Halsey’s songs seem to come from a place of pain or catharsis.
— Joe Lynch, Billboard, 21 Oct. 2021 -
And making the film was, in a way, a form of catharsis before the event, which seems very strange.
— Tim Grierson, Los Angeles Times, 12 Dec. 2022 -
Killing Howard will be a form of justice and catharsis.
— Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 14 Mar. 2023 -
When the ball found the bottom of the net, DeRozan unleashed a primal scream of pure catharsis.
— Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 12 Apr. 2021 -
Collins isn’t the only star who’s used hairstyling as catharsis.
— Edward Segarra, USA TODAY, 22 Dec. 2022 -
Landis, for his part, views his new book as a form of catharsis.
— Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Oct. 2023 -
There’s catharsis for Queenie by the end, and for the viewers lucky enough to go on the journey with her.
— Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 13 June 2024 -
The catharsis of tragedy, the cleansing of the human mind, can feel a little like a Finnish sauna, painful and good at the same time.
— Time, 17 Apr. 2021 -
In the midst of a crisis, great late-night TV can feel like catharsis, even a kind of lifeline.
— Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2023 -
The Loneliest Time was Jepsen’s attempt to spin catharsis out of tragedy.
— Keaton Bell, Vogue, 25 Oct. 2022 -
Metellus worked the first marathon after 9/11 and understands the catharsis the race can give the city.
— Phil Wahba, Fortune, 5 Nov. 2021 -
Springsteen sang of being trapped on the edge of catharsis, and the music seemed to want to suspend time.
— Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 8 Mar. 2024 -
Everybody wants to have that form of catharsis in their lives.
— Gordon Cox, Variety, 17 June 2023 -
This year, though, the movies might offer an even deeper kind of catharsis.
— Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 17 Dec. 2021 -
Neely turned to art as a way to process her trauma, and some readers will find catharsis here.
— Renata Sancken, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Sep. 2023 -
Telling the story of a breakup can be healing, like the catharsis of calling a friend after you’ve been dumped.
— Isle McElroy, The Atlantic, 16 Feb. 2024 -
After this catharsis, Renia felt able to move on, to start afresh.
— Judy Batalion, Time, 8 Apr. 2021 -
Just after this moment of catharsis, one of the theatre’s side doors opens.
— Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2021 -
Giddiness isn’t quite the right word, nor is catharsis.
— Matthew Pillsbur, The New Yorker, 26 July 2021 -
These were obviously not the sort of tears that flowed from joy or catharsis.
— Nick Moyle, San Antonio Express-News, 4 Mar. 2023 -
The song that induced the most catharsis during treatment?
— Theodore Kim, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2023 -
And don’t rely on catharsis for relief; anger just begets more anger.
— Colleen De Bellefonds, SELF, 1 Dec. 2022 -
Though his intention was to help Harfield, Brown found catharsis in the journey.
— The Salt Lake Tribune, 15 May 2022 -
Now that the group’s fans knew what to expect, Sunday night’s concert was all about catharsis.
— Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 20 Dec. 2021 -
Funny, scary, sad, painful, and most definitely fetch, the 2000s were the pinnacle of Mean Girl Cinema as both its own subgenre and as a larger avenue for big screen catharsis.
— Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 15 Aug. 2024 -
Showers have long been the place for a good cry—now high-end spas are tapping into the world of sensory showers with colored lights and synchronized water for next-level catharsis.
— Maria Yogoda, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Sep. 2024
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'catharsis.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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