depopulate
Americanverb (used with object)
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depopulates,
present (3rd person singular)
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depopulated,
past participle, past
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depopulating
present participle
adjective
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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depopulatesimple
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depopulatessimple
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have depopulatedperfect
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has depopulatedperfect
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am depopulatingprogressive
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are depopulatingprogressive
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is depopulatingprogressive
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have been depopulatingperfect progressive
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has been depopulatingperfect progressive
Past
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depopulatedsimple
-
had depopulatedperfect
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was depopulatingprogressive
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were depopulatingprogressive
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had been depopulatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of depopulate
1525–35; < Latin dēpopulātus devastated (past participle of dēpopulārī ), equivalent to dē- de- + populātus; see populate
Vocabulary lists containing depopulate
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mr Gates has long been the subject of multiple conspiracy theories - the most extreme of which claim that he is part of an effort to depopulate the world.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2024
“The county is putting its money where its mouth is in trying to depopulate the jail,” Kendrick said in an interview Friday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2023
The scale of a fishing operation can also make a big difference: overly intensive methods of catching fish can depopulate entire schools at once and cause serious imbalances in marine ecosystems.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2022
“The faster we can get on site and depopulate the birds that remain on site, the better,” Minnesota State Veterinarian Beth Thompson said.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 7, 2022
A mass exodus from North Korea could substantially depopulate the country, undermine its already inadequate capacity to grow food, and weaken—or perhaps even topple—the gov-ernment.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
In the Hebrides the failure of a harvest almost depopulates an island.
From The Lusiad or The Discovery of India, an Epic Poem by Luís de Camões
After a short period of activity, when the equal balance of loss and reparation is once removed, man quits the stage of life, and the law of mortality depopulates the earth.
From Philosophical Letters of Frederich Schiller by Friedrich Schiller
Hence, "the horror of the taille depopulates the rural districts, concentrating in the towns all the talents and all the capital5254."
From The Ancient Regime by John Durand
Its supposed events take place in the twenty-first century of our era, when a devouring plague depopulates by degrees the whole world, until the narrator remains, to his own belief, the only surviving soul.
From The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Volume II (of 2) by Florence A. Thomas Marshall
If the resuscitation of the State is desired by his labor, neither will be secured by a persecution which depopulates townships, and prevents the introduction of new labor and of capital.”
From The Nation's Peril Twelve Years' Experience in the South by Anonymous
The Almaraz plant, which contributes around seven percent of Spain's electricity production, is a key source of industry and employment in mostly rural, depopulated Extremadura.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
“That a name evocative of Disneyland has been applied to a depopulated, decimated swath of Ukrainian coal-and-steel country could appear jarring as Europe’s deadliest fighting since World War II continues to rage,” they wrote.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2026
Whatever its actual length, there is no doubting the war’s traumatic impact upon France, where swaths of countryside were depopulated for decades, or the grievous toll upon combatants and civilians alike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
The fear is that if these valleys become depopulated, other aspects of unique mountain culture could be lost too - like the Tschäggättä, traditional wooden masks, unique to the Loetschental valley.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2025
It is this exact neighborhood, he realizes, colorless and depopulated and miniaturized.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
But when is the last time you read about anything good taking place in a deindustrialized, depopulating, or aging community?
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2024
While most villages in Portugal’s interior are slowly depopulating, even former residents come back for these feasts.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 13, 2023
The county also committed to depopulating the jail by diverting some people into noncarceral beds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2023
It could instead push against longstanding migration trends, pulling young people and families back to depopulating regions or small towns.
From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2021
But now the small farms were already being turned into large, the sheep were dispossessing the plough, and the principle of "led" farms was depopulating the countryside.
From Bog-Myrtle and Peat Tales Chiefly of Galloway Gathered from the Years 1889 to 1895 by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
