Meaning & use

cathartic

adjective·Advanced

Providing a feeling of relief from strong or repressed emotions.

See it in a sentence

Writing about her grief in a journal proved deeply cathartic.

The team found the loud, cathartic scream after the game oddly satisfying.

A note on using this word

Cathartic comes from catharsis, a term originally used by Aristotle to describe emotional release through drama.

Words with a similar meaning

therapeuticreleasing

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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