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as in uninhabited
existing without human habitation or cultivation that land has been completely wild since the owners abandoned it

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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wild

2 of 3

adverb

wild

3 of 3

noun

as in wilderness
that part of the physical world that is removed from human habitation some animals aren't meant to live outside of the wild

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 wild
Adjective
The Bristol Bay watershed supports one of the world’s largest wild salmon runs, which is a critical food source for the bears. Emese MacZko, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025 They are believed to have entered the United States in the 1500s, where, over centuries, domestic stock eventually became wild due to escape and abandonment. Rachael O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Sep. 2025
Adverb
During the Depression, people ate wild-growing weeds such as dandelions out of necessity. Gabriel Popkin, Washington Post, 15 Aug. 2022 Advocates encourage businesses to use local, seasonal, and wild-grown ingredients, and tap into ancestral farming and foraging techniques. Zinara Rathnayake, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Aug. 2022
Noun
Let parts of your garden grow a little wild, with areas of undisturbed ground, leaf litter or flowering weeds like dandelions that can support a variety of life forms. Nanette Londeree, Mercury News, 4 Aug. 2025 Also, this is sort of wild: The Barbican opened in 1982, three months before I was born (laughs). Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 31 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for wild
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wild
Adjective
  • While not native to Florida, wild hogs, also called feral hogs, feral swine, feral pigs, wild boar, wild pigs or piney woods rooter, live in all 67 Florida counties, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife (FWC).
    Saman Shafiq, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2025
  • There is something feral in the onrush of Marlowe’s verse, with the gleam of bared teeth daring us to laugh.
    Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Billy Zane stars as Marlon Brando—a role he was born to play, look at him—in Bill Fishman’s adaptation of a memoir by architect Bernard Judge, whom Brando hired to build a compound on an uninhabited island in Tahiti in the ’70s.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
  • In warmer months, rent a boat or jet ski and head to Goat Island to congregate with other boaters who love to swim and relax around the tiny, uninhabited island.
    Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 1 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Giant chronicles a turbulent time in the life of famed children’s author Dahl when he was accused of anti-Semitism in the early 1980s.
    Greg Evans, Deadline, 16 Sep. 2025
  • As the biomaterials space navigates a more turbulent landscape marked by tightening budgets, regulatory uncertainty, and investor caution, Biofabricate is adapting its approach.
    Rhonda Richford, Footwear News, 16 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • But everything changes when a string of gruesome killings—which grow increasingly bizarre, with victims covered in rashes and found in deranged, violent states—involves his young daughter Hyo-jin (Kim Hwan-hee).
    Travis Bean, Forbes.com, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Paxton’s interest in Paul’s plight was bizarre, obsessive and so far beyond normal operations at the attorney general’s office that the agency’s top officials struggled to convey their concerns during the hourslong meeting with two FBI agents.
    Kimberly Ross, The Washington Examiner, 12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The combination of strange comments, a clear lack of education and experience, and a disturbing personal history with mental health struggles and domestic problems doomed his campaign.
    Kimberly Ross, The Washington Examiner, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Coon admitted that their daughter has also taken up a strange favorite film.
    Avalon Hester, PEOPLE, 12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Tasha Williams, mom to a freshman student, said her daughter called about the shooter, frantic and searching for her friend.
    Katie Langford, Boston Herald, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Laura is frantic about saving Daniel after learning Cherry pushed her father from a construction site, fracturing his spine in two places.
    Erin Jensen, USA Today, 12 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Bailey plays half-elf ranger Vex, O’Brien is her twin brother Vax, Willingham is the lovable barbarian Grog, Johnson is the holy gnome cleric Pike, Jaffe is the royal gunslinger Percy, Ray is magical half-elf druid Keyleth and Riegel is the raunchy gnome bard Scanlan.
    Jordan Moreau, Variety, 24 July 2025
  • The economy will not thrive on backward, barbarian technologies and our babies will suffer from the burden of debt, bad air and blackouts.
    Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 26 June 2025
Adjective
  • This year’s Fall Preview consists of all the entertainment — from TV to video games to theater — that Vulture writers and editors are excited to consume this season.
    Justin Davidson, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The inclusion created viral moments around social media with BLACKPINK’s global fanbase excited to see the song’s inclusion and the Shazam charts showing clear curiosity from viewers to find out more about the music.
    Jeff Benjamin, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Wild.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wild. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.

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