Meaning & use
desolate
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Empty, bleak and without people or comfort.
Grammar: Before a noun or after be: a desolate beach.
Patterns
- a desolate landscape
They crossed a desolate stretch of desert.
The town looked desolate after the factory closed.
adjectivecomparable
Extremely sad, lonely and hopeless.
Grammar: After feel or be: he felt desolate.
Patterns
- feel desolate
She felt desolate after the move.
He was desolate at the loss.
verbtransitiveliteraryrare
To make a place empty and wretched, or to fill with grief.
Grammar: Takes an object; rare.
Patterns
- desolate something
War desolated the countryside.
The news desolated the family.
Word forms
| comparative | more desolate |
|---|---|
| superlative | most desolate |
Common combinations
- desolate landscape
- A desolate landscape lay ahead.
- desolate place
- It was a desolate place.
- feel desolate
- I felt desolate.
- desolate wasteland
- The fire left a desolate wasteland.
Synonyms and how they differ
- barren
- Stresses lacking life or crops.
- bleak
- Cold and unwelcoming.
- forlorn
- Emotionally sad and abandoned.
Opposites
Word family
- desolation noun
- emptiness or misery
- desolately adverb
- in a bleak way
Commonly confused: desolate or desolation? desolate or dissolute?
desolate vs desolation
Desolation is the noun.
desolate vs dissolute
Dissolute means immoral.
Practice
After the factory closed, the once-busy street became ___.
Choose one answer.
Desolate means empty and bleak; the others suggest activity.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “desolate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.