A witch hunt is a term used to describe a campaign of persecution, usually based on unfounded accusations and prejudice. The term 'witch hunt' can be used to describe a wide range of activities, from the persecution of alleged witches in the early modern period to the McCarthyism of the 1950s. In this crossword, the solutions 'PURGE' (5 letters) and 'ONA' (3 letters) are related to witch hunts. 'PURGE' refers to the act of removing people from a group or organization, while 'ONA' stands for 'Office of National Affairs', which was an agency created by Senator Joseph McCarthy to investigate suspected communists in the United States.