devastated

adjective

dev·​as·​tat·​ed ˈde-və-ˌstā-təd 

1

: brought to a state of ruin or destruction

Dr. Dawdy, a 38-year-old assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, is one of the more unusual relief workers among the thousands who have come to the devastated expanses of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

—John Schwartz

I present here a steady flow model for the blast dynamics and propose that through much of the devastated area the blast was a supersonic flow of a complex multiphase (solid, liquid, vapour) mixture.

—Susan Werner Kieffer

2

: emotionally shattered or distraught

Doug never called. He dumped me for the cheerleader, and I was, in the parlance of teen-age romance, absolutely devastated.

—Marialisa Calta

Mr. Jacoby was devastated; he felt he was a proven winner and should not be yanked for one bad half.

—Ira Berkow

Examples of devastated in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Standing outside her Brooklyn home on Friday, a devastated Wright struggled to understand how the driver who hit her child could be so uncaring. —Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, 7 Mar. 2026

Her mother, Marlene LaMar, who had helped organize hundreds of volunteers for years to search through fields and gullies after Sierra vanished in 2012, said Saturday she was too devastated to speak about the ruling. —Julia Prodis Sulek, Mercury News, 1 Mar. 2026

That the Fendons don’t think to immediately tell their devastated adult son, Harry (Craig Roberts), that his dad is still alive is only the first delightfully absurd wrinkle in this mischievous black comedy. —Judy Berman, Time, 27 Feb. 2026

In just a few hours, the closing announcement attracted hundreds of comments and shares from devastated loyal customers who said the pizza has been a mainstay at local events since their youth. —Neal Riley, CBS News, 18 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1792, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for devastated

• abdicated
• abrogated
• acclimated
• activated
• actuated
• adumbrated
• advocated
• aggravated
• aggregated
• agitated
• allocated
• alternated