Usage Note
Tourment is a literary or elevated word for intense mental or physical suffering. The related verb tourmenter ('to torment') and the reflexive se tourmenter ('to worry oneself') are more common in everyday speech. The plural les tourments often evokes sustained, repeated suffering in literary contexts.
Examples
"Il vivait dans le tourment depuis des semaines."
Natural Translation
He had been living in torment for weeks.
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