1
as in bleak
causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer
a desolate house abandoned many years ago
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in lonely
sad from lack of companionship or separation from others
he was less desolate after adopting a rescue dog
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3
as in deserted
left unoccupied or unused
a desolate mining town that had its brief heyday more than a century ago
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4
as in barren
producing inferior or only a small amount of vegetation
wild, desolate plains on which only the hardiest could survive
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as in to ruin
to bring to a complete end the physical soundness, existence, or usefulness of
totally desolated the city with aerial bombs
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of desolate
Jeremy Fassler, Vulture, 2 Mar. 2025
Orphaned at 3 years old and robbed of her fortune, she’s dragged aboard a ship sailing for New France by her guardian, only to be abandoned on a desolate island.
—Staff, The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Feb. 2025
Colorado’s quadrant of the Four Corners is filled with secrets of the past in its rugged and sometimes desolate desert landscape.
—Jennifer Broome, The Denver Post, 11 Feb. 2025
In video after video, young people complained about missing their high school graduations and senior proms, of the desolate college campuses that welcomed them and the increasingly precarious economy that waited for them on the other side.
—Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for desolate
Adjective
This powerful film tells of the friendship between a young man and a peasant farmer who has devoted his life to planting trees throughout his desolate homeland.
—Jeremy Fassler, Vulture, 2 Mar. 2025
Orphaned at 3 years old and robbed of her fortune, she’s dragged aboard a ship sailing for New France by her guardian, only to be abandoned on a desolate island.
—Staff, The Christian Science Monitor, 20 Feb. 2025
Colorado’s quadrant of the Four Corners is filled with secrets of the past in its rugged and sometimes desolate desert landscape.
—Jennifer Broome, The Denver Post, 11 Feb. 2025
In video after video, young people complained about missing their high school graduations and senior proms, of the desolate college campuses that welcomed them and the increasingly precarious economy that waited for them on the other side.
—Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 14 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for desolate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for desolate
Adjective
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The coming-of-age story finds a new generation of young women in Gilead, grappling with the bleak future that awaits them.—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
1 Apr. 2025
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Stocks had sold off sharply last Friday, amid growing uncertainty on U.S. trade policy and a bleak inflation outlook.—
Amala Balakrishner,
CNBC,
30 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The results were conclusive: More than two-thirds (69%) of seniors felt lonely a majority of the time (50% of the time or more) before moving into a senior living community.—
Sara Zeff Geber,
Forbes.com,
31 Mar. 2025
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Being lonely is terrible for a person’s mental health.—
Kara Alaimo,
CNN Money,
31 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Charlie Parker’s Favorite Painting (1946) indicates Abercrombie’s engagement with social issues: a yellow noose, nearly fluorescent against a dishwater sky, dangles from a barren tree—an oblique lament from the doggedly antiracist Abercrombie.—
Jeremy Lybarger,
ARTnews.com,
26 Mar. 2025
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Mass Effect's core loop doesn't benefit from huge barren landscapes that are devoid of detail.—
Fran Ruiz,
Space.com,
25 Mar. 2025
Verb
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However, for some, gambling is an addiction that can ruin lives and families.—
Don Sweeney,
Sacramento Bee,
23 Mar. 2025
-
Institutions of higher learning, schools, churches, museums ruined.—
Askold Haywas,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
21 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Its cap is a shriveled mass of brown folds, darker than the caramel hue of the true morel.—
Shayla Love,
The Atlantic,
23 Mar. 2025
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Same goes for Lady Gaga and her fire-red McQueen gown, which hit all the right notes of dark romance.—
Christian Allaire,
Vogue,
23 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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One of the most powerful scenes in Sugarcane takes place in a disused barn where, over a period of decades, Indigenous children worked under the lash.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
8 Feb. 2025
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McQueen spends half an hour dispassionately showing us the grimness of HMP Maze, a Troubles-era warehouse for enemies of the British state on a disused airfield.—
IndieWire Staff,
IndieWire,
12 Aug. 2024
Adjective
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With the dwarfs and bandits by her side, Snow White vows to reclaim her parents’ home and restore peace to her impoverished kingdom.—
Patrick Ryan,
USA TODAY,
21 Mar. 2025
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The homes are part of an ambitious five-year plan, announced in 2021, to build 50,000 additional apartments in Pyongyang, where residents’ quality of life is considerably higher than elsewhere in the impoverished country.—
Oscar Holland,
CNN,
19 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Af Klint edited her own notebooks later in life, rewriting or destroying entire passages and exorcising biographical details.—
Jay Cheshes,
Smithsonian Magazine,
28 Mar. 2025
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Helicopters dumped water over a burning forest in South Korea Thursday as fire crews struggled to contain the country's worst-ever wildfires, which have killed 28 people, forced at least 37,800 to flee their homes and destroyed thousands of structures and vehicles.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
28 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Desolate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/desolate. Accessed 6 Apr. 2025.
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