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unpopulated

unpopulated

4 4.8
No people live there
  • adjective
  • /ʌnˈpɒpjʊleɪtɪd/
translation icon : deshabitado
  • The town was completely unpopulated after the evacuation, leaving only empty streets and abandoned buildings.
  • unpopulated area
  • unpopulated wilderness
  • unpopulated desert

Examples

  • Patagonia was virtually unpopulated at the time, but the new state immediately began to sponsor colonization schemes there.

    Academic text (2000)
  • The exception is Reno, which applies on a remote tract of land 140 miles north of the city in an area that is unpopulated except for a few days in late summer, when the Burning Man Festival takes place.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Environments may be populated or unpopulated.

  • Empty, unpopulated empires rise and fall.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Put simply, unpopulated and sparsely populated areas are under-represented in the temperature record.

    Blog text (10)
  • Herman van der Wee reports that as late as 1597, much rural land remained entirely unpopulated and the countryside was in a state of wastage.

    Academic text (2014)
  • As we hiked deeper into the forest, we found ourselves in an unpopulated area far from civilization.

  • The island remained unpopulated for centuries, attracting only occasional explorers and researchers.

Synonyms

lonely
vsunpopulated
89 1.6

A place with no people or animals present

denotes absence of people but without focusing on mood or feeling
uninhabited
vsunpopulated
20 4.0

A place with no people living there

means the same absence of residents with no added nuance
unoccupied
vsunpopulated
7 3.4

Empty and not used by anyone

refers specifically to places lacking residents without usage detail
abandoned
vsunpopulated
2 2.8

Left empty and not used, often by people who lived there

says only that no people live there without stressing abandonment
deserted
vsunpopulated
1 3.0

A place that people no longer live in or use

simply states lack of residents without implying prior departure
unpeopled
vsunpopulated
1 8.0

A place that has no people living there

expresses the same lack of people in a general way
untenanted
vsunpopulated
1 8.1

Not rented or lived in and empty

means empty of people more broadly, not only tenancy situations
peopleless
vsunpopulated
7.6

A place with no people in it

focuses only on lacking people rather than the atmosphere
unhaunted
vsunpopulated
6.6

Not lived in or visited by people

denotes simple lack of residents without implying visit patterns
depopulated
vsunpopulated
7.4

A place that has lost most of its people, often after war or disease

describes simply having no people, without indicating how that happened

Antonyms

2.5

An area where people or animals live

2.9

A place where people or animals live

How Populated

overcrowded
18 3.1
populous
23 4.4
populated
2.5
unpopulated
4 4.8

Surface Forms

unpopulated positive

Morphology

unpopulated = populated (transparent) = un + populate + ed

The word is a straightforward negation of 'populated' with the productive prefix 'un-'.

Etymology

The word unpopulated is made from un- meaning 'not' and populate, which is about 'people' as in population. So unpopulated means 'not filled with people', which is why we use it for places where no one lives.