devastating

1 of 2

adjective

dev·​as·​tat·​ing ˈde-və-ˌstā-tiŋ 

1

: causing great damage or harm

a devastating flood/earthquake

a devastating injury

A devastating coastal tsunami could also result from a severe displacement of the San Andreas Fault.

—Gary Sandquist

2

: causing extreme emotional pain

a devastating loss

Even the most banal domestic melodramas, readers come to understand, are experienced as devastating tragedies by children living them for the first time.

—Entertainment Weekly

3

: extremely effective or powerful

a devastating satire

He had a devastating wit and an utter contempt for shoddy work in physics.

—Jeremy Bernstein

devastatingly

ˈde-və-ˌstā-tiŋ-lē 

adverb

Some people recover readily from the infection, but in others it becomes disseminated, spreading rapidly and devastatingly from lungs to bones, skin and nervous system

—Lawrence Galton

Postcards from the Edge is a devastatingly savvy, bitingly funny, yet sad movie based on Carrie Fisher's autobiographical novel about Hollywood.

—Jeffrey Lyons

… is portrayed as a devastatingly effective power broker in the Senate.

—Alan Brinkley

devastating

2 of 2

present participle of devastate

Synonyms of devastating

Adjective

• disastrous
• destructive
• devastative
• deadly

Examples of devastating in a Sentence

Adjective

a devastating blow to our morale

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Here are a few of the fronts on which that undeclared war is being fought, with devastating consequences for the next generation of Americans. — David Wippman, Washington Post, 11 Sep. 2026

That combination has, historically, brought devastating extreme events worldwide. — Andrew Freedman, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2026

Excuse the hard pivot, but there have been some devastating deaths that have rocked the entertainment world recently — Dolly Parton, Tim Curry. — Yvonne Villarreal, Los Angeles Times, 10 Sep. 2026

In a sport like boxing, that alone can have devastating effects even without reaching the extremes of serious loss of water, which can lead to heat strokes or, as with Farrell, bleeding on the brain because of the lack of cerebrospinal fluid. — Sarah Shephard, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1634, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for devastating

• abdicating
• abrogating
• activating
• actuating
• advocating
• aggravating
• aggregating
• agitating
• allocating
• alternating
• animating
• annotating