1
as in melancholy
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2
as in bleakness
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for desolateness
Noun
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His reputation, as captured by obituaries in the Guardian and the Times of London, is one of genteel melancholy and precise social observation.—
Charlie Tyson,
Harpers Magazine,
21 Apr. 2026 -
Still, the achievement carried a touch of melancholy for Lovell.—
Daniel I. Dorfman,
Chicago Tribune,
13 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Survey after survey underscore the bleakness.—
Deputy Managing Editor,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Apr. 2026
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He was viewed as one of the country’s top coaching prospects — a ‘tracksuit manager’ who would play a hands-on role in training, and a welcome tonic after the bleakness of his predecessor Walter Smith’s tenure.—
Patrick Boyland,
New York Times,
25 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Valentine’s Day is like a sweet little respite from February dreariness.—
Rebecca Norris,
InStyle,
7 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Clearly, her absurd office dredged its barrenness from her.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 Jan. 2026
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Instead, Bevza felt a pressing need to remedy the barrenness of the Ukrainian fashion scene at the time.—
Stacia Datskovska,
Footwear News,
30 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Channeling ’90s slowcore and post-rock into gorgeously brooding odes to dejection, the Chicago quartet’s debut is downer music at its most alluring.—
Joshua Minsoo Kim,
Pitchfork,
13 Apr. 2026
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Inside the visiting locker room at Frost Bank Center on Thursday night, there was no sense of dejection from the Detroit Pistons.—
Jared Weiss,
New York Times,
11 Mar. 2026
Noun
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For some of us, this is a very counterintuitive notion, as the notion of things existing within and moving through some form of empty nothingness just doesn’t make any sense.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
7 May 2026
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As Bastian reads, a boy named Atreyu (Noah Hathaway), while pursued by a green-eyed creature called G’mork (Alan Oppenheimer), is dispatched by the Childlike Empress (Tami Stronach) to find the cure for the mysterious nothingness enveloping the kingdom.—
David Faris,
TheWeek,
16 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Despite this spark of hope, by his teens, Ian’s dreams of becoming a soccer player are falling apart as rejection, oppression and his own internal rage take their toll.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
12 May 2026
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The 54-year-old was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her advocacy for human rights and freedom for all.—
Connor Greene,
Time,
8 May 2026
Noun
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All morning, Keller had been swinging between optimism and despair.—
Rachel Monroe,
New Yorker,
14 May 2026
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That’s not a reason to despair.—
Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks,
Fortune,
13 May 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Desolateness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desolateness. Accessed 15 May. 2026.
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