as in deserts
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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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of wastelands
Thirty minutes south, on the Tennessee side of the border, Elon Musk has already begun transforming the industrial wastelands of South Memphis.
—
Mackenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 1 Jan. 2026
Where homes, buildings and fields once stood in the southern city of Rafah, there were now craters and barren wastelands.
—Stephen Sorace, FOXNews.com, 8 Oct. 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
Krasheninnikov is located in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, which said in a statement that there is no threat to any people or infrastructure as the volcano is largely surrounded by wastelands.
—Chad De Guzman, Time, 4 Aug. 2025
Mackenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 1 Jan. 2026
Where homes, buildings and fields once stood in the southern city of Rafah, there were now craters and barren wastelands.
—Stephen Sorace, FOXNews.com, 8 Oct. 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
Krasheninnikov is located in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, which said in a statement that there is no threat to any people or infrastructure as the volcano is largely surrounded by wastelands.
—Chad De Guzman, Time, 4 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wastelands
Noun
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California’s beaches, mountains, deserts, and vineyards attract hundreds of millions of visitors each year, leading many vacationers to dream of spending their golden years in the Golden State.—
Patricia Doherty,
Travel + Leisure,
15 Feb. 2026
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Helmed by Óliver Laxe and set against the backdrop of a fast-brewing global conflict, SIRĀT follows a father (Sergi López) and his young son in search of his missing daughter alongside a group of ravers in the deserts of southern Morocco.—
Kyle Denis,
Billboard,
10 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The forests are marked by sparse conifer stands, woodlands, herbaceous vegetation, and unvegetated barrens that dominate the transition to Arctic tundra.—
Julia Jacobo,
ABC News,
10 Feb. 2026
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The population surge caused widespread urchin barrens across the islands.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
12 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Wastelands.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wastelands. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
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