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

The extended stretch of freezing temperatures contributed to a devastating Lakewood apartment fire on Friday morning, which sparked around 5 a.m. by a space heater set up to keep pipes from freezing. —Katie Langford, The Denver Post, 8 Nov. 2024

For decades, her grieving family was left with no answers and a devastating desire for the truth. —Alaa Elassar, CNN, 5 Nov. 2024

Trump faced two assassination attempts, including a devastating shooting at a rally over the summer where one attendee, Corey Comperatore, was killed. —Rachel Barber, USA TODAY, 5 Nov. 2024

The best videos, however, involve a bit of spice, with suspects literally stopped in their tracks by the power of a devastating truth. —Dani Di Placido, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1634, in the meaning defined at sense 1