| Main Entry: | persecution |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | affliction |
| Synonyms: | annoyance, banishment, bashing, exile, expulsion, galling, ill-treatment, imprisonment, infliction, killing, maltreatment, massacre, mistreatment, murder, oppression, pestering, provoking, teasing, torment, torture, torture |
| Antonyms: | help, stimulation, succor |
| Main Entry: | bashing |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | abuse against a group or individual based on identity or ideological beliefs |
| Synonyms: | assault, attack, beating, beating up, bias crime, censure, charge, condemnation, criticism, denigration, harassment, hate crime, hounding, jumping, offensive, persecution, strike, torment |
| Main Entry: | cruelty |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | brutality, harshness |
| Synonyms: | animality, barbarism, barbarity, bestiality, bloodthirstiness, brutishness, callousness, coarseness, coldness, depravity, despotism, ferocity, fiendishness, fierceness, hard-heartedness, heartlessness, inhumanity, insensibility, insensitiveness, malice, malignity, masochism, mercilessness, murderousness, persecution, rancor, ruthlessness, sadism, savageness, savagery, severity, spite, spitefulness, torture, truculence, unfeelingness, unkindness, venom, viciousness, wickedness |
| Antonyms: | charity, compassion, consideration, feeling, gentility, kindness, mercy, niceness, thoughtfulness |
| Main Entry: | harassment |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | badgering |
| Synonyms: | aggravation, annoyance, bedevilment, bother, bothering, disturbance, exasperation, hassle, irking, irritation, molestation, nuisance, persecution, perturbation, pestering, provocation, provoking, torment, trouble, vexation, vexing |
| Antonyms: | aid, assistance, facilitation, furtherance, help, support |
| Main Entry: | hardship |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | personal burden |
| Synonyms: | Herculean task, accident, adversity, affliction, asperity, austerity, calamity, case, catastrophe, curse, danger, destitution, difficulty, disaster, discomfort, distress, drudgery, fatigue, grief, grievance, hard knocks, hazard, injury, labor, mischance, misery, misfortune, need, oppression, peril, persecution, privation, rainy day, rigor, rotten luck, sorrow, suffering, toil, torment, tough break, tough luck, travail, trial, tribulation, trouble, uphill battle, vicissitude, want, worry |
| Antonyms: | advantage, assistance, benefit, blessing, ease, favor, gain, good, profit |
| Main Entry: | hurt |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | injury; damage |
| Synonyms: | ache, black and blue, blow, boo-boo, bruise, chop, detriment, disadvantage, disaster, discomfort, disservice, distress, down, gash, harm, ill, ill-treatment, loss, mark, mischief, misfortune, nick, ouch, outrage, pain, pang, persecution, prejudice, ruin, scratch, sore, soreness, suffering, wound, wrong |
| Antonyms: | aid, assist, cure, healing, help, remedy |
| Main Entry: | martyrdom |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | suffering endured for sake of a cause |
| Synonyms: | affliction, agonizing, agony, anguish, crucifixion, devotion, distress, mortification, ordeal, pain, persecution, sacrifice, self-immolation, self-sacrifice, torment, torture, unselfishness |
| Antonyms: | contentment, happiness, satisfaction |
| Main Entry: | oppression |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | misery, hardship |
| Synonyms: | abuse, abusiveness, autocracy, brutality, calamity, coercion, compulsion, conquering, control, cruelty, despotism, dictatorship, domination, fascism, force, forcibleness, hardness, harshness, injury, injustice, iron hand, maltreatment, martial law, overthrowing, persecution, severity, subduing, subjection, suffering, torment, tyrrany |
| Antonyms: | cheer, delight, happiness, joy |
| Main Entry: | torment |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | severe mental distress |
| Synonyms: | affliction, agony, anguish, annoyance, bane, bother, excruciation, harassment, hell, irritation, misery, nag, nagging, nuisance, pain, pain in the neck, persecution, pest, plague, provocation, rack, scourge, suffering, torture, trouble, vexation, worry |
| Notes: | torment suggests persecution or the repeated inflicting of suffering or annoyance; torture adds the implication of causing unbearable pain or suffering |
| Antonyms: | contentment, glee, happiness, joy |
| Main Entry: | torture |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | severe mental or physical pain |
| Synonyms: | ache, affliction, agony, anguish, cruciation, crucifixion, distress, dolor, excruciation, impalement, laceration, martyrdom, misery, pang, persecution, rack, suffering, third degree, torment, tribulation, twinge |
| Antonyms: | alleviation, contentment, happiness, relief |