DEVASTATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does devastation mean? 

• DEVASTATION (noun)
  The noun DEVASTATION has 5 senses:

1. the state of being decayed or destroyed

2. the feeling of being confounded or overwhelmed

3. an event that results in total destruction

4. plundering with excessive damage and destruction

5. the termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired or no longer exists

  Familiarity information: DEVASTATION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEVASTATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being decayed or destroyed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

desolation; devastation

Hypernyms ("devastation" is a kind of...):

deterioration; impairment (a symptom of reduced quality or strength)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "devastation"):

ruin; ruination (an irrecoverable state of devastation and destruction)

blight (a state or condition being blighted)

Derivation:

devastate (cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The feeling of being confounded or overwhelmed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Context example:

her departure left him in utter devastation

Hypernyms ("devastation" is a kind of...):

feeling (the experiencing of affective and emotional states)

Derivation:

devastate (overwhelm or overpower)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An event that results in total destruction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

desolation; devastation

Hypernyms ("devastation" is a kind of...):

ruin; ruination (an event that results in destruction)

Derivation:

devastate (cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Plundering with excessive damage and destruction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

devastation; ravaging

Hypernyms ("devastation" is a kind of...):

pillage; pillaging; plundering (the act of stealing valuable things from a place)

Derivation:

devastate (cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired or no longer exists

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

destruction; devastation

Hypernyms ("devastation" is a kind of...):

conclusion; ending; termination (the act of ending something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "devastation"):

disaster (an act that has disastrous consequences)

kill (the destruction of an enemy plane or ship or tank or missile)

laying waste; ruin; ruination; ruining; wrecking (destruction achieved by causing something to be wrecked or ruined)

demolishing; leveling; razing; tearing down (complete destruction of a building)

annihilation; obliteration (destruction by annihilating something)

decimation (destroying or killing a large part of the population (literally every tenth person as chosen by lot))

self-destruction (the act of destroying yourself)

neutralisation; neutralization ((euphemism) the removal of a threat by killing or destroying it (especially in a covert operation or military operation))

sabotage (a deliberate act of destruction or disruption in which equipment is damaged)

extermination; liquidation (the act of exterminating)

holocaust (an act of mass destruction and loss of life (especially in war or by fire))

demolition (the act of demolishing)

spoliation ((law) the intentional destruction of a document or an alteration of it that destroys its value as evidence)

hooliganism; malicious mischief; vandalism (willful wanton and malicious destruction of the property of others)

Derivation:

devastate (cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly)

 Context examples 

Alarmed by the increasing devastation, Hull learned that keeping a horse in this region serves a similar function as maintaining a bank account.

(Belly up to the bamboo buffet: Pandas vs. horses, NSF)

When the typhus fever had fulfilled its mission of devastation at Lowood, it gradually disappeared from thence; but not till its virulence and the number of its victims had drawn public attention on the school.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The state of Minas Gerais ranks second, with 7,410 hectares deforested, most of which in the north—an area known for the devastation of its native vegetation for the production of coal and the growing of eucalyptus.

(Brazilian Atlantic Forest deforestation up nearly 60% in a year, Agência Brasil)

Little has changed in the land distribution of the devastation: the largest portion of the total area deforested over the 12-month period consisted of private properties (35.4%), followed by land reform settlements (28.6%), unassigned public land (24%) and conservancy units (12%).

(Amazon lost 7,989 km² of forest in 12 months, Agência Brasil)