as in deserted
left unoccupied or unused
the forsaken paper mill was now a rusting wreck
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in abandoned
to cause to remain behind
forsaking most of our possessions, we evacuated just before the hurricane struck
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of forsaken
Bryan West, USA Today, 3 Oct. 2025
All those lonesome, forsaken, snuffed-out lives.
—Huda Fakhreddine
august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
Lesley Stahl, CBS News, 8 Dec. 2025
The president has not only broken with the policy of the Biden administration but also seems to have forsaken the strategic direction of his own first term.
—Lael Brainard, Foreign Affairs, 10 Nov. 2025
In practice, that means neither Croatia nor Serbia claims them, although officials say that does not mean they have been forsaken.
—Richard Collett, CNN Money, 29 Oct. 2025
The drama is set in the mid-1990s and follows a pivotal day in the life of Murphy’s eponymous character and his students amidst a world that has forsaken them.
—Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline, 8 Oct. 2025
American brands such as Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, and the Row have often forsaken New York Fashion Week to show in Paris or on their own schedules, or not at all.
—Ana Karina Zatarain, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2025
Adjective
Swift rewrites the forsaken lover's fate through her own lens.
—Bryan West, USA Today, 3 Oct. 2025
All those lonesome, forsaken, snuffed-out lives.
—Huda Fakhreddine
august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025
Verb
In her resignation video, Greene said the president has forsaken the MAGA base, specifically pointing to his support of the crypto and pharmaceutical industries.
—Lesley Stahl, CBS News, 8 Dec. 2025
The president has not only broken with the policy of the Biden administration but also seems to have forsaken the strategic direction of his own first term.
—Lael Brainard, Foreign Affairs, 10 Nov. 2025
In practice, that means neither Croatia nor Serbia claims them, although officials say that does not mean they have been forsaken.
—Richard Collett, CNN Money, 29 Oct. 2025
The drama is set in the mid-1990s and follows a pivotal day in the life of Murphy’s eponymous character and his students amidst a world that has forsaken them.
—Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline, 8 Oct. 2025
American brands such as Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, and the Row have often forsaken New York Fashion Week to show in Paris or on their own schedules, or not at all.
—Ana Karina Zatarain, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for forsaken
Adjective
-
Displaced families often spend weeks, sometimes months, in makeshift dwellings, including public squares and deserted government buildings, while children lose months or even years of education as schools close or become inaccessible owing to gang activity.—
Edwidge Danticat,
New Yorker,
30 Jan. 2026
-
When their plane crashes, Linda and Bradley find themselves together on a deserted island.—
Julie Hinds,
Freep.com,
29 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Meanwhile, Eli, who was adopted by a white woman as a child, has mostly abandoned any ties to his ethnic background.—
Carlos Aguilar,
Variety,
1 Feb. 2026
-
Forensic experts testified that tiny fragments of flesh found inside William McGuire’s abandoned Nissan Maxima belonged to the victim and were not consistent with material shed by a living person.—
Stepheny Price,
FOXNews.com,
1 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Understanding that Mandela’s liberation meant that white-minority rule was coming to an end, the founders trekked into the desert, bought a disused mining town wholesale, and established a colony.—
Eve Fairbanks,
The Dial,
27 Jan. 2026
-
The Barnham site lies in a disused clay pit in Suffolk, UK, preserving traces of the period around 427,000 to 415,000 years ago.—
Jay Kakade
December 30,
New Atlas,
30 Dec. 2025
Adjective
-
Gibney illustrates that state of waiting, of staving off what at that time appears to be the inevitable, with the famous sequence from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, in which Max von Sydow’s medieval knight plays chess with Death on a desolate beach.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
25 Jan. 2026
-
Tautly written, this first novel by a former criminal lawyer who spent 17 years in the Arctic is a hard look at the desolate lives of people resigned to life in the bleak far north.—
Sandra Dallas,
Denver Post,
24 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Tighter oil coordination On January 9, Trump invited several oil executives to pitch proposals for investments in the derelict Venezuelan oil industry.—
Stefano Pozzebon,
CNN Money,
19 Jan. 2026
-
This stretch of the park, an object of fascination for Urbano, contains an array of a hundred or so different models of public gaslights, now obsolete and semi-derelict.—
Javier Montes,
Artforum,
1 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Forsaken.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/forsaken. Accessed 8 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
