tribulation
noun
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The writer and Christian scholar Thomas More, in his 1534 work A dialoge of comforte against tribulation, defined the title word as "euery such thing as troubleth and greueth [grieveth] a man either in bodye or mynde." These days, however, the word tribulation is commonly used as a plural noun, paired with trials, and relates less to oppression and more to any kind of uphill struggle. Tribulation comes from a Latin noun meaning "threshing board."
Synonyms
Examples of tribulation in a Sentence
Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2024
This retelling of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — about the tribulations and triumph of Celie (Fantasia Barrino), a poor Black woman living in the rural South in the early 1900s — brings the inspired songs from the crowd-pleasing Broadway musical to the screen.
—Los Angeles Times Staff, Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2024
This engrossing and disquieting memoir threads together the disruptions caused by the experimental socialism imposed on Venezuela by Hugo Chávez, who ruled the country from 1999 until his death in 2013, and the interminable tribulations of the author’s disintegrating Venezuelan family.
—Paula Ramón, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024
To be sure, there were plenty of bad movies back then, but unlike much of today’s Hollywood fodder, at least many of that era’s best films plumbed the tribulations of people and not hardware.
—Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Oct. 2023
Still, compared with the upheavals of war and exile, these were minor tribulations.
—Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2024
For Winters, the Chinese economy’s tribulations are the result of the country as a whole undergoing a widespread transition.
—Paolo Confino, Fortune, 13 Feb. 2024
Her most pressing tribulation at the moment is the uncertain economy.
—Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune, 30 Nov. 2023
Even if Giuliani emerges victorious from his legal tribulations, fighting them will undoubtedly rack up an immense cost.
—Lucien Bruggeman, ABC News, 7 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tribulation.' 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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“Tribulation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tribulation. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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tribulation
noun
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