Meaning & use
wilderness
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A wide area of land left in its natural state, with few or no people living there.
Grammar: A wilderness or the wilderness; uncountable for the idea in general.
Patterns
- in the wilderness
- a wilderness area
They hiked for days into the Alaskan wilderness.
The park protects the wilderness from building.
Rescue teams searched the wilderness for the lost climbers.
nouncountablefigurative
A tangled, overgrown or neglected area, such as a garden.
Grammar: Takes a/an: the garden had become a wilderness.
Patterns
- a wilderness of something
Our garden had turned into a wilderness of weeds.
The abandoned lot was a wilderness of brambles.
The loft was a wilderness of boxes and old furniture.
nounusually singularfigurative
A period when a person or group is out of power, ignored or unsuccessful.
Grammar: Usually the wilderness: in the wilderness.
Patterns
- in the wilderness
- wilderness years
After the scandal, the senator spent years in the political wilderness.
The band's wilderness years ended with a surprise hit.
He was in the wilderness until a new job came along.
Word forms
| plural | wildernesses |
|---|
Common combinations
- vast wilderness
- A vast wilderness stretches north of the town.
- wilderness area
- The wilderness area is closed to vehicles.
- in the wilderness
- They camped in the wilderness for a week.
- wilderness survival
- He teaches wilderness survival skills.
- political wilderness
- The leader spent a decade in the political wilderness.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wilds
- The wilds is more informal and sounds like remote country in general, while wilderness suggests a large protected area.
- wasteland
- Wasteland suggests barren, ruined land, while a wilderness may be rich in nature.
- backcountry
- Backcountry is the American term for remote land used for hiking, less poetic than wilderness.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: wilderness or wildness?
wilderness vs wildness
Wildness is the quality of being wild, while wilderness is a place.
Practice
After losing the election, the politician spent ten years in the political ___.
Choose one answer.
In the wilderness is a figurative phrase for being out of power. Wildlife means animals, so it does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “wilderness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.