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

Egypt fears the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, or GERD, will have a devastating effect on its water and irrigation supply downstream unless Ethiopia takes its needs into account. —Sam Meredith, CNBC, 5 Sep. 2024

The animal was found dead off the Norwegian coast on Saturday, devastating conservationists and fans worldwide who’d followed his unusual story and grown attached to his playful spirit. —Leslie Katz, Forbes, 4 Sep. 2024

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un may have ordered at least 30 government officials to be executed after the devastating floods over the summer that killed thousands, according to a new report from South Korea. —Bradford Betz, Fox News, 4 Sep. 2024

In September 2014, after Russian forces dealt a devastating defeat to Ukrainian forces in the city of Ilovaisk, Moscow probably could have advanced farther along the coast of the Sea of Azov, creating a land corridor from Crimea to Russia. —Peter Schroeder, Foreign Affairs, 3 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1634, in the meaning defined at sense 1