devastated
verb
Form of devastate , past tense of devastate.
Simple meaning
To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dehvuhstaytuhdSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɛvəsteɪtəd
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.
verb
past tense of devastate
To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.
past tense of devastate
To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay
past tense of devastate
To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
past tense of devastate
To break beyond recovery or repair so that the only options are abandonment or the clearing away of useless remains (if any) and starting over.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.
In this sense, devastated is a very strong, expressive word and signals serious, lasting hurt rather than disappointment.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Strongly negative / painful
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Devastated is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Related Learning
Guides that use this word in context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “devastated” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.