devastating
Americanadjective
-
tending or threatening to devastate.
a devastating fire.
-
satirical, ironic, or caustic in an effective way.
a devastating portrayal of society.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- devastatingly adverb
- undevastating adjective
- undevastatingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of devastating
First recorded in 1625–35; devastat(e) + -ing 2
Explanation
Something that's shocking and distressing is devastating. Watching the local ice cream shop burn to the ground would be devastating to many neighborhood kids. Incredibly destructive events like earthquakes are devastating, although anything that's tragic, even on a personal level, can also be devastating. It's also used informally to mean incredibly affecting or impressive, like a photographer's devastating images of urban poverty. This meaning came into use in the late 1800s — before that, devastating came right from the Latin word devastare, "to lay waste completely."
Vocabulary lists containing devastating
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Hatchet
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mao founded Communist China in 1949 and led it through a tumultuous and devastating period in the 1960s and 1970s, when an attempt at rapid industrialisation triggered a famine, killing tens of millions.
From BBC • Apr. 19, 2026
They point to the string of devastating urban wildfires in recent years as reason to move quickly.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 18, 2026
It also pointed to the devastating effects on the ecosystem of having massive machines churn up the soil of old-growth forests.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
Philippa Childs, head of broadcasting union Bectu, warned that "cuts of this magnitude" would be "devastating for the workforce and to the BBC as a whole".
From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026
“I don’t know this man!” said Mr. Jaggers, in the same devastating strain: “What does this fellow want?”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
