devastate

verb

To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.

To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay

To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.

To break beyond recovery or repair so that the only options are abandonment or the clearing away of useless remains (if any) and starting over.

Roots

vastusvast- · Latin · empty, desolate

Synonyms for devastate

ravagen destroyv ruinn obliteratev havocn demolishv despoilv depopulatev razev overwhelmv

Synonyms & related words for devastate

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of devastate — including ravage, destroy, ruin, obliterate, havoc, demolish. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to devastate

Explore words related to devastate — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include decimates, decimating, decimated, devastation, ravager, annihilating, devastator, ruinable. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for devastate

Common synonyms for devastate include ravage, destroy, ruin, obliterate, havoc, demolish, despoil, depopulate — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does devastate come from?

The word devastate breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root vast-, from Latin vastus (“empty, desolate”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.