desolation

noun

des·o·la·tion ˌde-sə-ˈlā-shən

ˌde-zə-

: the action of desolating

the pitiful desolation and slaughter of World War I

D. F. Fleming

: grief, sadness

… he put his trembling hands to his head, and gave a wild ringing scream, the cry of desolation.

George Eliot

: loneliness

: devastation, ruin

a scene of utter desolation

: barren wasteland

looked out across the desolation

Example Sentences

She sank into a state of desolation and despair. photos that show the desolation of war

Recent Examples on the Web The film places that fear — of joblessness, of shame, of physical and spiritual desolation, of dark cars following you in the night — at the epicenter of the culture of abuse.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 13 Oct. 2022 His sci-fi/noir hybrid Alphaville, which doubles as an examination of dehumanization and spiritual desolation, anticipated later genre mash-ups such as Blade Runner.

Tim Grierson, Rolling Stone, 13 Sep. 2022 It’s that his desolation of Auburn football is the beginning of some dark age for the Tigers.

Joseph Goodman | Jgoodman@al.com, al, 11 Oct. 2022 The mix of desolation and relief in Key West embodies the range of fates across Florida, where some communities escaped largely unscathed while others saw tragedy.

Max Zahn, ABC News, 30 Sep. 2022 How would Holleran, a master of melancholy atmospheres and painful self-scrutiny, follow that study in desolation?

Alan Hollinghurst, The New York Review of Books, 3 Aug. 2022 In Berlin, the crisis creates unsettling echoes of the desolation following World War II.

Josefine Fokuhl, Fortune, 8 Oct. 2022 The desolation wrought by Mount Doom becomes even more stark following an abrupt transition to the hobbitses’ migration after a one-episode hiatus.

Michael Nordine, Variety, 6 Oct. 2022 Notice, too, the contrast between the studio interior — bare to the point of desolation — and the extravagant sky and landscape in the portrait on the easel.

Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'desolation.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English desolacion, desolacioun "state of distress or hardship, feeling of distress, affliction," borrowed from Anglo-French & Late Latin; Anglo-French desolacion, borrowed from Late Latin dēsōlātiōn-, dēsōlātiō "abandonment, solitude," from Latin dēsōlāre "to leave all alone, forsake, empty of inhabitants" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of verbal action — more at desolate entry 1

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of desolation was in the 14th century

See more words from the same century