as in desert
land that is uninhabited or not fit for crops
with proper irrigation and fertilizer, they turned the desert wasteland into a fertile plain
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Recent Examples of wasteland
Oil was discovered there in the 1920s, and the county went through booms and busts for decades, enriching wildcatters and devastating the landscape, until a lasting bust left Loving County a virtual wasteland with no running water, paved roads, schools, hospitals, or grocery stores.
—
Mitch Moxley, Rolling Stone, 27 Sep. 2025
After struggling with life inside a Greenland bunker, the anxious Garrity family decides to leave that safety and navigate a shattered and radioactive wasteland of Europe to find a new home.
—Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 25 Sep. 2025
This quiz invites you to explore the darker corners of sci-fi literature, where monsters lurk not just in shadows, but in laboratories, alien worlds and post-apocalyptic wastelands.
—Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Space.com, 16 Sep. 2025
Nothing that moves survives long in the wasteland between the Russian and Ukrainian lines.
—Ken Harbaugh, The Atlantic, 15 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wasteland
Mitch Moxley, Rolling Stone, 27 Sep. 2025
After struggling with life inside a Greenland bunker, the anxious Garrity family decides to leave that safety and navigate a shattered and radioactive wasteland of Europe to find a new home.
—Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 25 Sep. 2025
This quiz invites you to explore the darker corners of sci-fi literature, where monsters lurk not just in shadows, but in laboratories, alien worlds and post-apocalyptic wastelands.
—Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Space.com, 16 Sep. 2025
Nothing that moves survives long in the wasteland between the Russian and Ukrainian lines.
—Ken Harbaugh, The Atlantic, 15 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wasteland
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wasteland
desert
Noun
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Meals are hyper-locally sourced, in part from the garden out back tended by the head of grounds—who also doubles as the yoga instructor—and serve as an education to the flora and fauna of the desert.—
Laura Dannen Redman,
Robb Report,
16 Oct. 2025
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The project was inspired by real military training camps in the California desert.—
Anthony D'Alessandro,
Deadline,
16 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wasteland.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wasteland. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.
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