devastate

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

devastate

/ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/ Canada, UK, US
/ˈdev.ə.stæɪt/ Australia

Where it comes from

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.

verb devastates · devastating · devastated

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

Similar: decimate, destroy, raze, ruin

Thesaurus

verb

Similar: decimate, destroy, raze, ruin

Translations

Every language

verb to ruin many or all things over a large area

Español	devastar
日本語	破壊する hakai suru
中文	摧毀 /摧毁 cuīhuǐ, 破壞 /破坏 pòhuài, 蹂躪 /蹂躏 róulìn
Português	devastar
Français	dévaster
Deutsch	verwüsten, verheeren
Italiano	devastare
Română	devasta
Русский	опустоша́ть opustošátʹ, опустоши́ть opustošítʹ, разоря́ть razorjátʹ, разори́ть razorítʹ

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"devastate." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/devastate. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

devastate. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/devastate

Chicago

"devastate." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/devastate.

BibTeX

@misc{devastate_2026,
  title = {devastate},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/devastate},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}