- present participle of devastate.
devastating
Americanadjective
-
tending or threatening to devastate.
a devastating fire.
-
satirical, ironic, or caustic in an effective way.
a devastating portrayal of society.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of devastating
First recorded in 1625–35; devastat(e) + -ing 2
Explanation
Something that's shocking and distressing is devastating. Watching the local ice cream shop burn to the ground would be devastating to many neighborhood kids. Incredibly destructive events like earthquakes are devastating, although anything that's tragic, even on a personal level, can also be devastating. It's also used informally to mean incredibly affecting or impressive, like a photographer's devastating images of urban poverty. This meaning came into use in the late 1800s — before that, devastating came right from the Latin word devastare, "to lay waste completely."
Vocabulary lists containing devastating
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Hatchet
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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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.
California will likely fare better than Venezuela did on Wednesday, but a magnitude 7.8 quake in this state would still be devastating.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 25, 2026
The suffering from this faulty reasoning has already begun, as Venezuela, another TPS country, reels from a devastating earthquake the same day as the court’s opinion.
From Slate • Jun. 25, 2026
Haitians became eligible for TPS in 2010 following a devastating earthquake and the country continues to suffer from extreme poverty, rampant violence from heavily armed gangs and chronic political instability.
From Barron's • Jun. 25, 2026
Those things weren’t important to know in order to be moved by Griffin’s tale of how a lifelong quest for perfection set her mind and body against one another with devastating results.
From Salon • Jun. 25, 2026
"It was just the most devastating event in world history...that somehow didn't happen," according to the historian Martin Sherwin.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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.
