as in reformative
serving to raise or adjust something to some standard or proper condition
the belief that manual labor was a reformatory experience for convicted felons, who would learn the value of hard work
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as in reform school
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of reformatory
JSTOR Daily, 24 June 2024
His mother sent him to the Élan School in Maine, a reformatory boarding institution with extreme forms of discipline, including shouting sessions and boxing matches, that attracted widespread criticism and that led to the school’s closing in 2011.
—Alex Traub, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024
Anna Tingley, Variety, 28 Sep. 2024
The story follows two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow-era Florida.
—Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 22 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for reformatory 
Adjective
While Spanish Catholicism and reformatory Protestantism favored black clothing, much of the Renaissance happened in an explosion of color.
—JSTOR Daily, 24 June 2024
His mother sent him to the Élan School in Maine, a reformatory boarding institution with extreme forms of discipline, including shouting sessions and boxing matches, that attracted widespread criticism and that led to the school’s closing in 2011.
—Alex Traub, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024
Noun
The two-and-a-half-hour film follows two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow-era Florida.
—Anna Tingley, Variety, 28 Sep. 2024
The story follows two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow-era Florida.
—Rebecca Rubin, Variety, 22 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for reformatory
Recent Examples of Synonyms for reformatory
Adjective
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Fifty-five years after Martin Luther King's death, African Americans continue to proudly honor his reformative legacy in Phoenix.—
The Arizona Republic,
The Arizona Republic,
14 Jan. 2024
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While the idea of hiring actors might raise some eyebrows, acting and artistry can be an important step in the reformative process, and Hemsworth suggested that the actors’ real-life experiences helped shape their on-screen characters.—
Wesley Stenzel,
EW.com,
5 Dec. 2023
Noun
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Two young Black men try to survive an infamous Florida reform school.—
Bill Goodykoontz,
The Arizona Republic,
29 Nov. 2024
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Watch on Deadline Whitehead’s novel follows the friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Jim Crow Florida.—
Patrick Hipes,
Deadline,
2 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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Buyers who have sought relief from the city have gotten nowhere: Emails, phone calls and meetings have prompted no corrective action.—
Linda Robertson,
Miami Herald,
26 Jan. 2025
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These moves underscore how crucial the pardon power really is: the last possible corrective when the criminal justice system imprisons too many people and punishes them too harshly.—
Abdallah Fayyad,
Vox,
17 Jan. 2025
Noun
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On the morning after Assad’s escape from Damascus, in the underground dungeon of a fearsome prison known as the Palestine Branch, a twenty-seven-year-old farmer’s son named Motasem Kattan awoke to shouts and the clattering of iron doors.—
Jon Lee Anderson,
The New Yorker,
27 Jan. 2025
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These paradoxes twist around the game like briars around an enchanted tower; at the window stands the dungeon master.—
Andrea Long Chu,
Vulture,
30 Dec. 2024
Noun
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The GoFundMe raised more than $67,000 over its first two days, including large donations from the Idaho Medical Academy, emergency training school Idaho CPR Plus, and Meridian, Middleton, Star and Kuna firefighter unions.—
Sally Krutzig,
Idaho Statesman,
7 Jan. 2025
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Today, women have successfully passed almost all military training schools, subject to the same physical standards as their male counterparts.—
Matt Robison,
Newsweek,
20 Nov. 2024
Noun
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That is a memoir by Kang Chol-hwan about the North Korean gulag.—
Jay Nordlinger,
National Review,
15 Jan. 2025
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Now as then, letters from the gulags tell of eternal winters, cold cells, and the longing for the first signs of greenery to appear amid the thaw.—
Francesca Mastruzzo (Tr. Elettra Pauletto),
The Dial,
14 Jan. 2024
Noun
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One is a stony oubliette with crystals growing out of the walls.—
Erin Alberty,
Axios,
6 Jan. 2025
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This godown was an oubliette.—
Rafil Kroll-Zaidi,
Harper’s Magazine ,
7 Dec. 2021
Noun
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China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are playing for keeps and America’s existential interests may soon be on the line.—
David A. Deptula,
Forbes,
9 Dec. 2024
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That’s why the most important thing for an actor is everything should be played for keeps.—
Matt Zoller Seitz,
Vulture,
5 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near reformatory
Cite this Entry
“Reformatory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/reformatory. Accessed 6 Feb. 2025.
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