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

How could the seeming desolation of a Snowball Earth line up with this burst of biological innovation? —Veronique Greenwood, WIRED, 11 Aug. 2024

Amid the desolation of a forest in late fall, three film students attempt to make a documentary about a witch known only by local legend. —Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week Us, theweek, 9 Aug. 2024

Reverend Dwight reported that the houses along the Boston Road were scenes of desolation. —Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024

Amid all this appearance of desolation, nothing struck my own eye more forcibly than the sight of this great road; the passage from New-York to Boston. —Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 15 July 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