desolate
adjective · verb
Simple meaning
Empty, lonely and without people or life.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dehsuhluhtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɛsələt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.
Sad, forlorn and hopeless.
Barren and lifeless.
Made unfit for habitation or use because of neglect, destruction etc.
Dismal or dreary.
verb
To deprive of inhabitants.
To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.
To devastate or lay waste somewhere.
To abandon or forsake something.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.
Used this way, desolate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- depopulate , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: deserted and devoid of inhabitants
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.