Meaning & use
desertification
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
The process by which fertile land in dry areas becomes desert, usually because of drought or harmful farming.
Grammar: Uncountable: no plural and no 'a' or 'an' before it.
Patterns
- desertification of something
- the spread of desertification
- combat desertification
Years of overgrazing and drought led to severe desertification across the region.
The government has planted trees along the border to slow desertification.
Scientists warn that desertification could force millions of farmers to move to cities.
noununcountabletechnical
The act of making an area more like a desert, for example by removing trees or water.
Grammar: Also uncountable; often used with verbs like 'cause' or 'accelerate'.
Patterns
- cause desertification
- accelerate desertification
Cutting down the remaining trees accelerated desertification in the valley.
Poor irrigation practices caused desertification on what had once been good farmland.
Common combinations
- combat desertification
- The UN has launched a program to combat desertification in West Africa.
- severe desertification
- Severe desertification has turned much of the plateau into rocky waste.
- the spread of desertification
- Satellite images show the spread of desertification over the past thirty years.
- desertification in a region
- Desertification in the region has reduced the amount of land suitable for crops.
- reverse desertification
- Local farmers are trying to reverse desertification by building stone barriers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- land degradation
- Broader and more formal; it covers any loss of land quality, while desertification is specifically about land turning into desert.
- drought
- Refers to the dry weather itself, not the long-term process of land becoming desert, though drought often drives desertification.
Opposites
Word family
- desert noun
- A large area of dry land with little rain or vegetation.
- desertify verb
- To become desert or make land become desert; much rarer than the noun.
- desertified adjective
- Describing land that has already turned into desert.
Commonly confused: desertification or deforestation? desertification or desertion?
desertification vs deforestation
Deforestation means cutting down forests; it can cause desertification, but the two are not the same thing.
desertification vs desertion
Desertion means leaving a person, duty or army; it sounds similar but has nothing to do with land.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'desertification' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Desertification' is an uncountable noun meaning the process of land turning into desert, so 'caused desertification' fits. Option 1 is wrong because forests are cut down (deforestation), not turned into desert. Option 2 wrongly adds 'a' before an uncountable noun, and option 4 uses the noun as a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “desertification”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.