Synonyms for desolation
Most common
destruction gloom ravage gloominess misery wretchedness devastation barrenness
Synonyms by meaning
Noun
1. Gloom — the state of being desolated or laid waste
gloom, destruction, gloominess, ruin, ravage, destitution, havoc, dreariness, waste, wreck, sack, solitariness, spoliation
2. Misery
misery, wretchedness, sadness, loneliness, melancholy, unhappiness, forlornness, sorrow, melancholia, woe, distress, infelicity
Other
Definitions
- n. 1
The state of being desolated or laid waste
- n. 2
The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation.
- n. 3
A place or country wasted and forsaken.
Forms
- Plural
- desolations → glooms, destructions, gloominesses, ruins…
Example sentences
- destruction They found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
- gloom I hoped you could hurl some lumens into the gloom.
- misery Tom blamed all his misery on planned obsolescence.
- wretchedness War is accompanied by wretchedness and sorrow.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| desolation | rising | |
| destruction | steady | |
| gloom | rising | |
| ravage | rising | |
| gloominess | rising | |
| misery | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- woe1
- 4 letters
- ruin2, sack1
- 5 letters
- waste1, wreck1, havoc2, gloom1
- 6 letters
- misery3, sorrow2, ravage2
- 7 letters
- sadness2
- 8 letters
- distress2, bareness
- 9 letters
- nakedness, bleakness2
- 10 letters
- loneliness3, melancholy4, spoliation, barrenness, dreariness3, gloominess, infelicity
- 11 letters
- destruction3, devastation4, unhappiness4, destitution4, melancholia, forlornness
- 12 letters
- wretchedness, solitariness5, desolateness
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (ruin2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- désolation
- Italiano
- desolazione
- Català
- desolació