desolate
12
6.7
- adjective
- /ˈdɛsəlɪt/
- After her friend moved away, she felt desolate and longed for companionship.
- feel desolate
- look desolate
- desolate and lonely
Examples
-
My failure to solve it left me desolate.
-
Louisa and I have been quite desolate without you, haven't we?
-
"I am best as I am, though the hours alone are sometimes pretty desolate."
Academic text (1996) -
This book really speaks to that lonely, desolate place that all of us have experienced until we break free.
-
How did I come to this high, desolate place where there is nothing but loneliness?
-
I'm lonely in this desolate old palace.
-
Unaccountably, the idea that I might not see him again made me feel desolate.
Fiction book (1997) -
Her voice has a sound he's never heard from her, a desolate despair.
Fiction book (1992) -
I thought that if I don't acknowledge what I should acknowledge, I would keep leading a desolate and difficult life.
-
So cold, so desolate.
Synonyms
445
3.5
Feeling very sad and without hope
58
4.5
Making you feel sad and hopeless
44
3.8
A gloomy, boring time that makes you feel sad or tired
32
5.9
Feeling or showing deep sadness
30
2.5
Feeling no hope about a situation or the future
22
4.1
Looking or feeling sad and quiet
17
7.5
Feeling very sad and alone because someone you love or something important is missing
16
7.7
Feeling very sad and without hope about the future
13
6.7
Very sad and shocked after losing someone close
10
4.5
Feeling very sad and not hopeful
10
5.3
Not having anyone to talk to or support you
9
7.7
Showing or feeling complete defeat and no hope
7
5.4
Feeling sad and without hope
3
8.2
Very sad and not able to be comforted
2
4.1
Feeling sad and without much hope
2
7.5
To have a deep sadness and no meaning inside you
1
9.9
Being numb and empty inside after loss or long sadness
Antonyms
How Lonely
10
7.2
- Literature
17
7.5
12
6.7
829
1.0
88
3.8
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
desolate = de + solate
The adjectival sense 'feeling lonely or despondent' is a figurative extension of physical emptiness and is not directly inferable from the morphemes by most learners.
Etymology
Desolate comes from the Latin word solus ('alone'), the same idea you see in solo and sole, so it means being 'all alone'. That's why if you feel desolate you feel very lonely and without comfort.