desolation

noun

des·​o·​la·​tion ˌde-sə-ˈlā-shən 

ˌde-zə-

1

: the action of desolating

the pitiful desolation and slaughter of World War I

—D. F. Fleming

2

a

: grief, sadness

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

—George Eliot

b

: loneliness

3

: devastation, ruin

a scene of utter desolation

4

: barren wasteland

looked out across the desolation

Synonyms

• blue devils
• blues
• dejection
• depression
• despond
• despondence
• despondency
• disconsolateness
• dispiritedness
• doldrums
• dolefulness
• downheartedness
• dreariness
• dumps
• forlornness
• gloom
• gloominess
• glumness
• heartsickness
• joylessness
• melancholy
• miserableness
• mopes
• mournfulness
• oppression
• sadness
• sorrowfulness
• unhappiness

Examples of desolation in a Sentence

She sank into a state of desolation and despair.

photos that show the desolation of war

Recent Examples on the Web

The blistering heat — with an average high temperature that’s more than 100 degrees four months of the year — only heightens the sense of desolation. —Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 17 May 2024

These take the form of painful, protracted firsthand recollections of bloodshed and desolation, from stories of buildings destroyed by artillery shells, to accounts of mothers and grandmothers forced to step up from behind the confines of femininity and social expectation. —Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 16 Feb. 2024

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

Kids Definition

desolation

noun

des·​o·​la·​tion ˌdes-ə-ˈlā-shən 

ˌdez-

1

: the action of desolating

2

: sadness resulting from grief or loneliness

3

: the condition of being desolated : ruin

4

: lifeless land