1
as in bleak
causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer
a desolate house abandoned many years ago
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2
as in lonely
sad from lack of companionship or separation from others
he was less desolate after adopting a rescue dog
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3
as in deserted
left unoccupied or unused
a desolate mining town that had its brief heyday more than a century ago
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4
as in barren
producing inferior or only a small amount of vegetation
wild, desolate plains on which only the hardiest could survive
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as in to ruin
to bring to a complete end the physical soundness, existence, or usefulness of
totally desolated the city with aerial bombs
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of desolate
Jeremy Fassler, Vulture, 2 Mar. 2025
Orphaned at 3 years old and robbed of her fortune, she’s dragged aboard a ship sailing for New France by her guardian, only to be abandoned on a desolate island.
—Staff, The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Feb. 2025
Colorado’s quadrant of the Four Corners is filled with secrets of the past in its rugged and sometimes desolate desert landscape.
—Jennifer Broome, The Denver Post, 11 Feb. 2025
In video after video, young people complained about missing their high school graduations and senior proms, of the desolate college campuses that welcomed them and the increasingly precarious economy that waited for them on the other side.
—Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for desolate
Adjective
This powerful film tells of the friendship between a young man and a peasant farmer who has devoted his life to planting trees throughout his desolate homeland.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for desolate
Adjective
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The coming-of-age story finds a new generation of young women in Gilead, grappling with the bleak future that awaits them.—
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Stocks had sold off sharply last Friday, amid growing uncertainty on U.S. trade policy and a bleak inflation outlook.—
Adjective
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Being lonely is terrible for a person’s mental health.—
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The results were conclusive: More than two-thirds (69%) of seniors felt lonely a majority of the time (50% of the time or more) before moving into a senior living community.—
Adjective
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Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting (1946) indicates Abercrombie’s engagement with social issues: a yellow noose, nearly fluorescent against a dishwater sky, dangles from a barren tree—an oblique lament from the doggedly antiracist Abercrombie.—
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Meanwhile, the patch of skin to the ’22 trophy’s left looks almost barren.—
Verb
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Curtis left her job as a deputy in August 2023 and sued the county soon after, claiming in court documents that Anderson’s harassment ruined her reputation and career with the county.—
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The problem lies once kids become tech savvy and a simple Google search can ruin the fun.—
Adjective
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TikTok briefly went dark in the US and was pulled from app stores on Jan. 18.—
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The serum is a beyond-potent combination of 15 percent vitamin C, one percent vitamin E, and 0.5 percent ferulic acid formulated to brighten skin, fade dark spots and hyperpigmentation, and target fine lines and wrinkles.—
Adjective
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One of the most powerful scenes in Sugarcane takes place in a disused barn where, over a period of decades, Indigenous children worked under the lash.—
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McQueen spends half an hour dispassionately showing us the grimness of HMP Maze, a Troubles-era warehouse for enemies of the British state on a disused airfield.—
Adjective
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On the idyllic shores of the once popular tourist hot spot Inle Lake, in southern Shan state, the earthquake destroyed hundreds of bamboo houses on stilts occupied by impoverished villagers, according to aid workers.—
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These navigators link impoverished Floridians with the network of religious and community organizations that support them and teach them how to take of themselves, according to Hope Florida’s supporters.—
Verb
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Many of the early hires were believed to be young tech engineers with little to no government experience, prompting criticism from Democrats and unions that critical government services and systems would be cut or destroyed.—
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Helicopters dumped water over a burning forest in South Korea Thursday as fire crews struggled to contain the country's worst-ever wildfires, which have killed 28 people, forced at least 37,800 to flee their homes and destroyed thousands of structures and vehicles.—
Cite this Entry
“Desolate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desolate. Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.
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