Word.ws English Dictionary

devastate

UK/ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈdev.ə.stæɪt/

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.

Verb

devastate (third-person singular simple present devastates, present participle devastating, simple past and past participle devastated)

  1. 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.
    • Halifax in Canada was devastated by a ship exploding in 1917. SS Mont Blanc, a French vessel loaded with 2.9 kilotons of explosives, collided with the Imo.2022 August 24, Bruce Healey, “Wartime tunnel crash: a miraculous escape”, in RAIL, number 964, page 53
  2. To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
  3. 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.
  4. To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay

devastate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

devastate in Hindi

to devastate, ravage, lay waste
उजाड़ना ujāṛnā

devastate in Tamil

அழி, சூறையாடு, பாழாக்கு

devastate in Urdu

غارتگری کرنا, تاخت و تاراج کرنا

devastate in Bengali

বিধ্বস্ত করা, পুরোপুরি ধ্বংস করা, অত্যন্ত ক্ষতিসাধন করা
More languagesFewer languages
devastate in Malayalam
പൂർണ്ണമായി നശിപ്പിക്കുക, ശൂന്യമാക്കുക, കൊള്ളയടിച്ച് നശിപ്പിക്കുക, തീവ്രദുഃഖവും ഞെട്ടലുമുണ്ടാകുക
devastate in Kannada
ಅಳಿಸು, ಹಾಳುಮಾಡು, ಹಾಳುಗೆಡವು, ವಿನಾಶಗೊಳಿಸು

Synonyms of devastate

Forms of devastate

third-person singular presentdevastates
present participledevastating
past participledevastated
pastdevastated

Past tense of devastate: devastated

Origin of devastate

Borrowed from Latin dēvastātus, perfect passive participle of dēvastō (“to lay waste, devastate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)); from dē- (augmentative prefix) + vastō (“to destroy, lay waste”). See vast. First attested in 1638.

Words formed from devastate

Questions about devastate

What does devastate mean?
Devastate means 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.
What is devastate in Hindi?
Devastate in Hindi is उजाड़ना (ujāṛnā). See Devastate meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is devastate?
Devastate is a verb.
How do you pronounce devastate?
Devastate is pronounced /ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of devastate?
The past tense of devastate is devastated.

Words near devastate in the dictionary

  1. devascularizations
  2. devascularize
  3. devascularized
  4. Devasena
  5. devast
  6. devastate
  7. devastated
  8. devastates
  9. devastating
  10. devastatingly
  11. devastatingness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: devastate (page history and authors); उजाड़ना (Hindi) (page history and authors); devastate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devastate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Devastate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devastate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devastate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “devastate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/devastate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.