as in weeping
expressing or suggesting mourning
one look at his agonized, tearful eyes and it was clear that something was terribly wrong
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in plagued
to cause persistent suffering to
got into more trouble, further agonizing her poor mother
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in grieved
to feel deep sadness or mental pain
agonized for days over whether she'd done the right thing
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of agonized
Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Aug. 2024
Over several pages, Ramberg drew and inventively redrew the thoracic cavity of the agonized body in Italian crucifixions, making the depression framed by the ribcage into a positive, phallic form.
—Sue Taylor, ARTnews.com, 31 July 2024
Exploding cannons and agonized screams are the soundtrack of a polite society being ushered into a new, more indiscriminately brutal age, one that Nagakado meets with foolish confidence, Omi with a nefarious grin, Blackthorne with outsider confusion, and Yabushige and Mariko with informed despair.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2024
Its videos of agonized parents clutching their dead children and bodies being pulled from the rubble flood social media.
—Liam Stack, New York Times, 9 May 2024
See All Example Sentences for agonized
Adjective
Researchers suggest that the woman may have been afflicted by a rare muscle reaction at the moment of death that immortalized her agonized expression.
—Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Aug. 2024
Over several pages, Ramberg drew and inventively redrew the thoracic cavity of the agonized body in Italian crucifixions, making the depression framed by the ribcage into a positive, phallic form.
—Sue Taylor, ARTnews.com, 31 July 2024
Exploding cannons and agonized screams are the soundtrack of a polite society being ushered into a new, more indiscriminately brutal age, one that Nagakado meets with foolish confidence, Omi with a nefarious grin, Blackthorne with outsider confusion, and Yabushige and Mariko with informed despair.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2024
Its videos of agonized parents clutching their dead children and bodies being pulled from the rubble flood social media.
—Liam Stack, New York Times, 9 May 2024
See All Example Sentences for agonized
Recent Examples of Synonyms for agonized
Adjective
-
And every day, across from them, outside the clinic, about to enter or just leaving, there were women hugging each other and weeping.—
David Mamet,
National Review,
11 Aug. 2022
-
The show manages to stay on the brink — always laughing, never quite weeping — for its entire length.—
Helen Shaw,
Vulture,
8 Dec. 2021
Adjective
-
Brown’s sound design mixes Sousa-like military fanfares with mournful underscoring for Lavinia’s tragedy, neither of which has much to do with Kidwell’s preshow music.—
Emily McClanathan,
Chicago Tribune,
26 Feb. 2025
-
Chaos quickly unfolds when the bickering, different-strokes twins find the calamitous heirloom—although Perkins keeps the first act mostly mournful, as the boys struggle with the onslaught of death around them.—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
21 Feb. 2025
Verb
-
Also Thursday, people mourned eight Palestinians killed by Israeli military operations in and around the city of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.—
Josef Federman and Wafaa Shurafa,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Dec. 2024
-
And yet, 32 games later, the transaction is barely mourned and hardly mentioned.—
John Romano,
Orlando Sentinel,
26 Dec. 2024
Adjective
-
Boldt hired 300 workers to construct the six-story, 120-room castle outfitted with a drawbridge and tower, but when Louise died suddenly in 1904, the heartbroken Boldt halted construction and never returned to the island.—
Gulnaz Khan,
AFAR Media,
13 Feb. 2025
-
There are similar Valentine’s Day opportunities geared toward the heartbroken.—
Megan Forrester,
ABC News,
12 Feb. 2025
Verb
-
For example, the same researchers at Cornell University who invented the new goggles have previously shown a reduction in blood flow in the brains of mice afflicted with the condition.—
Michael Franco,
New Atlas,
29 Dec. 2024
-
Terrified, the patient almost reflexively asked her surgeon to remove both of her breasts, even though the cancer afflicted only one side.—
Angie Leventis Lourgos,
Chicago Tribune,
22 Dec. 2024
Adjective
-
Their son Donny attended to all of the funeral arrangements with the help of his wife Jan, a nurse, and his daughters Andrea and Alicia.—
Phil Potempa,
Chicago Tribune,
8 Feb. 2025
-
The funeral mass in Quincy’s Sacred Heart Church will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday.—
Rick Sobey,
Boston Herald,
31 Jan. 2025
Verb
-
After jumping out to a 9-2 start this season, the Phoenix Suns have sputtered over the past month as injuries have besieged their Big Three.—
Bryan Toporek,
Forbes,
26 Dec. 2024
-
The wealthiest man in the world used his social media platform X to amplify the unrest, and GOP lawmakers were besieged with phone calls to their offices telling them to oppose the plan.—
Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking,
The Christian Science Monitor,
20 Dec. 2024
Adjective
-
The Bostock ruling arrived against a backdrop of anguished soul-searching on the right.—
Mattathias Schwartz,
New York Times,
15 Feb. 2025
-
The anguished frenzy reminded me of the scene across the street from then-Staples Center in those days after Kobe’s death, when thousands of people gravitated to that block of restaurants and bars and a purple-and-gold memorial grew.—
Mirjam Swanson,
Orange County Register,
25 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Agonized.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/agonized. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share