desolate
DESS-uh-lit
/ˈdes.əl.ət/
Deserted of people and in a state of bleak and dismal emptiness.
Combines physical empty space with an emotional sense of sorrow, abandonment, and stark dreariness.
The story behind the word. Derived from Latin desolatus, past participle of desolare ('to leave alone or lay waste'). Rooted in solus ('alone'). When the Romans 'desolated' a countryside, they destroyed its towns and drove away all residents, leaving it completely bare.
Word relationships
- barren: Barren refers strictly to inability to produce vegetation or offspring, while desolate carries a heavy mood of emptiness and abandonment.
- stark: Stark emphasizes sharp, severe simplicity or contrast, whereas desolate emphasizes lonely emptiness.
- teeming: Full of life, activity, and people.
- populous: Densely populated with inhabitants.
Commonly confused with
- isolated: Isolated means separated from others; desolate adds a feeling of depressing emptiness.
Word family
- desolation (noun): A state of complete emptiness or destruction.
- desolately (adverb): In a lonely or bleak manner.
Collocations
- desolate landscape
- desolate wasteland
- feel desolate
- desolate stretches
Example sentences
- "The storm left behind a desolate plain of gray sand and scattered stones." Landscape narrative
Memory hook
DE-SOLATE leaves you SO LONE (solo) in the landscape. Desolate = empty, bare, and lonely.
When not to use
Do not use for a bustling city park on a cloudy day; there must be genuine emptiness or devastation.
Fun facts
- Astronomers often describe the surface of the Moon as a desolate plain due to its total absence of air and liquid water.
Related words
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