desolate means deserted and devoid of inhabitants. It carries an Arena rating of 1512, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, desolate ranks #2,332 of 14,308 for Most Malleable Words, #2,592 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words, #2,678 of 14,410 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,759 of 14,322 for Scariest Words.
desolate is pronounced /ˈdɛs.ə.lət/.
Why “desolate” is a great word
The state of being utterly abandoned, barren, and laid waste, bearing the stark imprint of devastation. From Middle English *desolat*, from Latin *dēsōlātus*, past participle of *dēsōlāre* ("to abandon, desert"), from *dē-* ("completely") + *sōlāre* ("to make lonely"), from *sōlus* ("alone"), first recorded in English 1325–75. Unlike "bleak," which emphasizes a grim and windswept austerity, or "solitary," which simply denotes being alone, "desolate" implies a landscape—or a soul—from which life has been forcibly and completely stripped. It is the cracked earth of a dried lakebed, the splintered door of a farmhouse swinging on a single rusted hinge, the scent of ash lingering in a field where no bird sings—a profound emptiness that speaks not of what is missing, but of what was violently taken away, leaving the world not merely alone, but forsaken.
Etymology
From Middle English desolat(e). See Etymology 2 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.
adj
- Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.“a desolate isle; a desolate wilderness; a desolate house”
- Barren and lifeless.
- Made unfit for habitation or use because of neglect, destruction etc.“desolate altars”
- Dismal or dreary.
- Sad, forlorn and hopeless.“He was left desolate by the early death of his wife.”
verb
- To deprive of inhabitants.“If you consider well of the People of the West-Indies, it is very probable, that they are a newer or younger People, than the People of the old World. And it is much more likely, that the destruction that hath heretofore been there, was not by Earthquakes, […] but rather, it was Desolated by a particular Deluge: For Earthquakes are seldom in those Parts.”
- To devastate or lay waste somewhere.“Then Moath pointed where a cloud
Of Locusts, from the desolated fields
Of Syria, wing’d their way.”
- To abandon or forsake something.“It is not to be supposed that when Cush left Armenia, he left it desolate, and that a rich and long settled country was abandoned altogether; for it would be an absurd way of founding an universal empire, to desolate one country in order to people another.”
- To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.“It is not altogether uncommon to hear a reader whose heart has been desolated by the poignancy of a narrative complain that the writer is unemotional.”
Words closest in meaning
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