godforsakenness means the quality of being godforsaken. It carries an Arena rating of 1160, earned across 45 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, godforsakenness ranks #556 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #593 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,795 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,476 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
Why “godforsakenness” is a great word
GODFORSAKENNESS — [Noun] The state or quality of being utterly desolate, abandoned, or wretched. From the compound adjective godforsaken (from God + forsaken, meaning "abandoned by God") + the noun-forming suffix -ness. Unlike "desolation," which maps a bleak and empty landscape, or "wretchedness," which names a general misery, godforsakenness is a theological verdict, a profound existential evacuation. It is the silence that answers a prayer in a roadside chapel with its door torn off, the taste of rust on the last cup of water from a forgotten well, and the specific, granular chill of a wind blowing from nowhere over salt-bleached stones. This is the quiet, profound truth of the word: it names the terror not of punishment, but of being forgotten.
Etymology
From godforsaken + -ness.
noun
- The quality of being godforsaken.e.g.“The godforsakenness of the place is something more than a figure of speech.” — 2007 May 13, Terrence Rafferty, “Cops and Rabbis”, in New York Times:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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