wilderness
noun
Simple meaning
Uncultivated and unsettled land in its natural state inhabited by wild animals and with vegetation growing wild.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
wildernuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwɪldɚnəs
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.
noun
uncountable
Uncultivated and unsettled land in its natural state inhabited by wild animals and with vegetation growing wild; (countable) a tract of such land; a waste or wild.
A wild and uninhabited area left in its natural condition
“It was a wilderness preserved for the hawks and mountaineers.”
by extensioncountable
A place other than land (for example, the air or sea) that is uncared for, and therefore devoted to disorder or wildness.
A bewildering profusion
“The duties of citizenship are lost sight of in the wilderness of interests of individuals and groups.”
The Battle of the Wilderness, 1864, which occurred there.
politics
A state of disfavor
“He led the Democratic party back from the wilderness.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Uncultivated and unsettled land in its natural state inhabited by wild animals and with vegetation growing wild; (countable) a tract of such land; a waste or wild.
Used this way, wilderness 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
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Uncultivated / wildnoun
“It was a wilderness preserved for the hawks and mountaineers.”
Bewilderingnoun
“The duties of citizenship are lost sight of in the wilderness of interests of individuals and groups.”
Disfavornoun
“He led the Democratic party back from the wilderness.”
More ways to use wilderness
- “It was a wilderness preserved for the hawks and mountaineers.”noun
- “He led the Democratic party back from the wilderness.”noun
- “The duties of citizenship are lost sight of in the wilderness of interests of individuals and groups.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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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.