desolate
Americanadjective
-
barren or laid waste; devastated.
a treeless, desolate landscape.
- Synonyms:
- bleak
-
deprived or destitute of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited.
- Synonyms:
- remote
-
a desolate life.
-
having the feeling of being abandoned by friends or by hope; forlorn.
-
desolate prospects.
verb (used with object)
adjective
-
uninhabited; deserted
-
made uninhabitable; laid waste; devastated
-
without friends, hope, or encouragement; forlorn, wretched, or abandoned
-
gloomy or dismal; depressing
verb
-
to deprive of inhabitants; depopulate
-
to make barren or lay waste; devastate
-
to make wretched or forlorn
-
to forsake or abandon
Synonym Usage
Desolate, disconsolate, forlorn suggest one who is in a sad and wretched condition. The desolate person is deprived of human consolation, relationships, or presence: desolate and despairing. The disconsolate person is aware of the efforts of others to console and comfort, but is unable to be relieved or cheered by them: She remained disconsolate even in the midst of friends. The forlorn person is lost, deserted, or forsaken by friends: wretched and forlorn in a strange city.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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desolatenessnoun
-
desolaternoun
-
desolatornoun
-
quasi-desolateadjective
-
desolatelyadverb
-
quasi-desolatelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
desolatesimple
-
desolatessimple
-
have desolatedperfect
-
has desolatedperfect
-
am desolatingprogressive
-
are desolatingprogressive
-
is desolatingprogressive
-
have been desolatingperfect progressive
-
has been desolatingperfect progressive
Past
-
desolatedsimple
-
had desolatedperfect
-
was desolatingprogressive
-
were desolatingprogressive
-
had been desolatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of desolate
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Latin dēsōlātus “forsaken,” past participle of dēsōlāre, from dē- de- + sōlāre “to make lonely” (derivative of sōlus sole 1 )
Explanation
If you feel alone, left out, and devastated, you feel desolate. A deserted, empty, depressing place can be desolate too. If you know the word deserted, you have a clue to the meaning of desolate, a grim word that can describe feelings and places. When a person feels desolate, he feels deserted, lonely, hopeless, and sad. When a location is desolate, there's almost nothing there. Think of a rundown cabin in the middle of nowhere, with no running water and no stores or other people anywhere. That's a desolate setting. Being in a desolate place usually makes people feel desolate.
Vocabulary lists containing desolate
Figurative Language in King's "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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Zilch, Zip, Nada: Words For Nothing
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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:
West Ham manager Nuno Espirito Santo was desolate, insisting everyone in the game is now confused as to what constituted a foul in the penalty area at set-pieces.
From BBC ● May 10, 2026
On de-boarding, the last station bore the look of a desolate Soviet-era structure rather than a bustling train terminal in a city where crowds typically jostle for space.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2026
A school newspaper article described the student center in 2023 as desolate and deserted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
During one orbit, Anders captured Earth's brilliant blue hue standing out against the vast darkness of space and accentuated by the desolate, grey lunar horizon in the foreground.
From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 2026
She pivoted, shackles clanking, and took in the desolate waste that was Endovier.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
The sudden death of Leontes' young son desolates him.
From Time Magazine Archive
He visits Barbara's soup kitchen shelter and proves with an open checkbook that he can bribe the poor and buy the Army, which desolates Barbara.
From Time Magazine Archive
But your misrepresentation which pained me most, in fact desolates me to the extent that I am unfit for work, is your statement that I weigh 200 Ib.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her voice changes here; an indescribable alteration not only hardens, but desolates it.
From April's Lady A Novel by Hungerford, Margaret Wolfe
The low wind through your garden prates Of one this twilight desolates.
From The Dreamers And Other Poems by Garrison, Theodosia
Hospital director Dr Muhammad Abu Salima has called on the WHO and the UN to help the medical teams and patients "leave this desolated place".
From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2023
At the same time, Wallerstein could offer a mild reassurance: "It would certainly not be great, but it is not necessarily the desolated moonscape that people sometimes imagine it would be."
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2022
Even in the depths of the pandemic — even when the world locked down, leaving billions isolated and desolated — there were those who danced.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 16, 2021
Everywhere in this desolated settlement, the forest, whose decline the episode had just detailed, is reclaiming its space.
From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2019
Still—I was desolated when he climbed away and headed back west.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
When D’Amore isn’t speaking — and for most of those three minutes and 40 seconds, she is silent — her body language is desolating.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2019
“The simple way...to put an end to the savage and desolating war now waged by the slaveholders, is to strike down slavery itself, the primal cause of that war.”
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
It sounds as if your mother is relatively young herself, so this is a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s which is even more desolating.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2015
As the actors take up their places, a desolating video begins to play.
From The Guardian ● May 11, 2013
But the flowers, the smell, the movement of the leaves persist, rich, mesmerizing, desolating, infused with grief.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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.
