What is another word for persecute?

Synonyms for persecute
ˈpɜr sɪˌkyutper·se·cute

This thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word persecute.

Wiktionary2.1 / 8 votes

  1. persecuteverb

    Synonyms:
    distress, oppress, harass, annoy, worry

  2. persecuteverb

    To pursue in a manner to injure, grieve, or afflict; to beset with cruelty or malignity; to harass; especially, to afflict, harass, punish, or put to death for one's race, sexual identity, adherence to a particular religious creed, or mode of worship.

    Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. – Matt. 5:44.

    Synonyms:
    annoy, distress, harass, oppress, worry

  3. persecuteverb

    To harass with importunity; to pursue with persistent solicitations; to annoy.

    Synonyms:
    distress, oppress, harass, worry, annoy

English Synonyms and Antonyms3.0 / 2 votes

  1. persecute

    Abuse covers all unreasonable or improper use or treatment by word or act. A tenant does not abuse rented property by "reasonable wear," though that may damage the property and injure its sale; he may abuse it by needless defacement or neglect. It is possible to abuse a man without harming him, as when the criminal vituperates the judge; or to harm a man without abusing him, as when the witness tells the truth about the criminal. Defame, malign, rail at, revile, slander, vilify, and vituperate are used always in a bad sense. One may be justly reproached. To impose on or to victimize one is to injure him by abusing his confidence. To persecute one is to ill-treat him for opinion's sake, commonly for religious belief; to oppress is generally for political or pecuniary motives. "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy," Deut. xxiv, 14. Misemploy, misuse, and pervert are commonly applied to objects rather than to persons. A dissolute youth misemploys his time, misuses his money and opportunities, harms his associates, perverts his talents, wrongs his parents, ruins himself, abuses every good gift of God.

    Synonyms:
    abuse, aggrieve, damage, defame, defile, disparage, harm, ill-treat, ill-use, impose on, impose upon, injure, malign, maltreat, misemploy, misuse, molest, oppress, pervert, prostitute, rail at, ravish, reproach, revile, ruin, slander, victimize, vilify, violate, vituperate, wrong

    Antonyms:
    applaud, benefit, care for, cherish, conserve, consider, eulogize, extol, favor, laud, panegyrize, praise, protect, regard, respect, shield, sustain, tend, uphold, vindicate

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms5.0 / 1 vote

  1. persecute

    Synonyms:
    harass, molest, annoy, worry, vex

    Antonyms:
    encourage, inspirit, abet, support

Princeton's WordNet4.0 / 3 votes

  1. persecute, oppressverb

    cause to suffer

    "Jews were persecuted in the former Soviet Union"

    Synonyms:
    oppress, suppress, crush

Dictionary of English Synonymes4.0 / 1 vote

  1. persecuteverb

    Synonyms:
    oppress, harass, afflict, molest, distress, worry, hunt down, run down, pursue malignantly, drive from pillar to post

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words0.0 / 0 votes

  1. persecuteverb

    Synonyms:
    harass, oppress, tyrannize, torment, dragoon, importune, annoy, hector, badger

PPDB, the paraphrase database0.0 / 0 votes

  1. List of paraphrases for "persecute":

    haunt, prosecute, pursue

How to pronounce persecute?

How to say persecute in sign language?

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

Words popularity by usage frequency

rankingword
#1673wrong
#2225abuse
#2266damage
#5005worry
#6159harm
#7546pursue
#12398crush
#12669distress
#12746violate
#14038misuse
#14164ruin
#16683suppress
#20785annoy
#24818prosecute
#26533haunt
#28024prostitute
#33274slander
#34128harass
#34306injure
#34734pervert
#42903reproach
#54523vex
#65039persecute
#66795oppress
#72172malign
#73765defame
#78097defile
#84156disparage
#85386molest
#141077vilify
#148587revile
#151654ravish
#164852victimize
#317019maltreat

How to use persecute in a sentence?

  1. Luz Palmas Zaldua:

    It determines not only that state terrorism in Argentina was an criminal conspiracy but that it was coordinated with other dictatorships, they got together to maximize efforts to persecute political opponents of each of the dictatorships, and to 'disappear' or eliminate those who were considered subversive.

  2. Sigmund Freud:

    It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too.

  3. Maya Wang:

    A lot of these governments don't care about human rights, they are unelected governments that persecute their citizens in their countries. There is no real rule of law and democracy when it comes to deportations of Uyghurs.

  4. Fatou Bensouda:

    We believe he ordered his troops to attack, pillage, rape, persecute and kill civilians belonging to Lendu, Ngiti and other ethnic groups, we believe he recruited hundreds of children into the UPC (Union of Congolese Patriots) and used them to kill and to die in the fighting; and girl soldiers to be routinely raped.

  5. Ralph Waldo Emerson:

    Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine as churches and monasteries persecute youthful saints.


Translations for persecute

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"persecute." Synonyms.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Oct. 2024. <https://www.synonyms.com/synonym/persecute>.

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