"cathartic" in the noun sense
1. purgative, cathartic, physic, aperient
a purging medicine stimulates evacuation of the bowels
"cathartic" in the adjective sense
1. cathartic, psychotherapeutic
emotionally purging
2. cathartic, releasing
emotionally purging (of e.g. art)
3. cathartic, evacuant, purgative
strongly laxative
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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