wasteland
Americannoun
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land that is uncultivated or barren.
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an area that is devastated, as by flood, storm, or war.
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something, as a period of history, phase of existence, or locality, that is spiritually or intellectually barren.
noun
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a barren or desolate area of land, not or no longer used for cultivation or building
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a region, period in history, etc, that is considered spiritually, intellectually, or aesthetically barren or desolate
American television is a cultural wasteland
Etymology
Origin of wasteland
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.
Shujaiya today is a flat wasteland of rubble.
From BBC • Feb. 18, 2026
It was a wasteland of corporate buzzwords, 4 a.m. wake-up routines and stories about overcoming workplace adversity with a little something called grit.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 7, 2026
McCarthy, addressing ProPublica on Substack, wrote: “You point to various online guides that offer what could be considered dangerous dosing instructions. We agree, the internet is a terrifying wasteland of misinformation and disinformation.”
From Salon • Dec. 15, 2025
When you scan their rural town, a wasteland of Dollar General stores and fast food chains, most of their neighbors seem to have already faded away.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 2025
After everything she had done to atone for her crime, after she had turned her marriage into an arctic wasteland and allowed a surgeon to tie her fallopian tubes, consanguinity wasn’t finished with her.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
