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Torture vs Persecution - What's the difference?

torture | persecution |

As nouns the difference between torture and persecution

is that torture is intentional causing of somebody's experiencing agony while persecution is the act of persecuting.

As a verb torture

is to intentionally inflict severe pain or suffering on (someone).

torture

Noun

(en noun)
  • Intentional causing of somebody's experiencing agony.
  • Using large dogs to attack bound, hand-cuffed prisoners is clearly torture .
    In every war there are acts of torture that cause the world to shudder.
    People confess to anything under torture .
  • (chiefly, literary) The "suffering of the heart" imposed by one on another, as in personal relationships.
  • Every time she says 'goodbye' it is torture !

    Derived terms

    * torture chamber *

    Verb

    (tortur)
  • To intentionally inflict severe pain or suffering on (someone).
  • People who torture often have sadistic tendencies.

    Derived terms

    * *

    persecution

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • The act of persecuting.
  • A program or campaign to subjugate or eliminate a specific group of people, often based on race, religion, sexuality, or social beliefs.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=(Jan Sapp) , title=Race Finished , volume=100, issue=2, page=164 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution . But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?}}