devastating

adjective

dev·​as·​tat·​ing ˈde-və-ˌstā-tiŋ 

1

: causing great damage or harm

a devastating flood/earthquake

a devastating injury

A devastating coastal tsunami could also result from a severe displacement of the San Andreas Fault.

—Gary Sandquist

2

: causing extreme emotional pain

a devastating loss

Even the most banal domestic melodramas, readers come to understand, are experienced as devastating tragedies by children living them for the first time.

—Entertainment Weekly

3

: extremely effective or powerful

a devastating satire

He had a devastating wit and an utter contempt for shoddy work in physics.

—Jeremy Bernstein

devastatingly

ˈde-və-ˌstā-tiŋ-lē 

adverb

Some people recover readily from the infection, but in others it becomes disseminated, spreading rapidly and devastatingly from lungs to bones, skin and nervous system

—Lawrence Galton

Postcards from the Edge is a devastatingly savvy, bitingly funny, yet sad movie based on Carrie Fisher's autobiographical novel about Hollywood.

—Jeffrey Lyons

… is portrayed as a devastatingly effective power broker in the Senate.

—Alan Brinkley

Synonyms

• annihilatory
• calamitous
• cataclysmal
• cataclysmic
• destructive
• devastative
• disastrous
• ruinous

Examples of devastating in a Sentence

a devastating blow to our morale

Recent Examples on the Web

Steward has been one focus of a year-and-a-half-long CBS News investigation revealing how private equity investors have siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from community hospitals with devastating public health consequences. —Matt Schooley, CBS News, 6 May 2024

In 2006, a student at a Mexican boarding school developed devastating leg pain and had trouble walking; soon hundreds of classmates were afflicted. —Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 6 May 2024

That's because cheap Chinese EVs could be devastating to a key sector of the U.S. economy: auto manufacturing. —Camila Domonoske, NPR, 6 May 2024

Well, not all of them, because in a devastating move, Paige chose to hang back in the States rather than return to Russia with her parents. —Ew Staff Published, EW.com, 3 May 2024

Much of Europe and the United States is struggling with how best to cope with migrants seeking refuge from war, violence, oppression, and a warming planet that has brought devastating drought and floods. —Jill Lawless, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Apr. 2024

Jenifer Lewis spent a year recovering from a devastating 10-foot fall while on safari in Tanzania. —Michael Schneider, Variety, 25 Apr. 2024

Yet as the authors of this provocative critique suggest, sanctions can often be equally devastating. —Lisa Anderson, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024

Like others in Europe, Schumpeter had seen the devastating effects of inflation. —Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 22 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1634, in the meaning defined at sense 1