wilderness

¹

[ wil-der-nis ]

noun

1. a wild and uncultivated region, as of forest or desert, uninhabited or inhabited only by wild animals; a tract of wasteland.
2. a tract of land officially designated as such and protected by the U.S. government.
3. any desolate tract, as of open sea.
4. a part of a garden set apart for plants growing with unchecked luxuriance.
5. a bewildering mass or collection.

Wilderness

²

[ wil-der-nis ]

noun

1. a wooded area in NE Virginia: several battles fought here in 1864 between armies of Grant and Lee.

wilderness

¹

/ ˈwɪldənɪs /

noun

1. a wild, uninhabited, and uncultivated region
2. any desolate tract or area
3. a confused mass or collection
4. a voice in the wilderness
   a voice in the wildernessa voice crying in the wilderness a person, group, etc, making a suggestion or plea that is ignored
5. in the wilderness
   in the wilderness no longer having influence, recognition, or publicity

Wilderness

²

/ ˈwɪldənɪs /

noun

1. the Wilderness
   the Wilderness the barren regions to the south and east of Palestine, esp those in which the Israelites wandered before entering the Promised Land and in which Christ fasted for 40 days and nights

Word History and Origins

Origin of wilderness¹

1150–1200; Middle English; Old English *wil ( d ) dēornes, equivalent to either wil ( d ) dēor wild beast ( wild, deer ) + -nes -ness, or wilddēoren wild, savage ( wilddēor + -en -en ² ) + ( -n ) es -ness; probably reinforced by Middle English wildernes, genitive of wildern wilderness (noun use of Old English wilddēoren ), in phrases like wildernes land land of wilderness

Word History and Origins

Origin of wilderness¹

Old English wildēornes, from wildēor wild beast (from wild + dēor beast, deer ) + -ness ; related to Middle Dutch wildernisse, German Wildernis

Synonym Study

See desert ¹.

Example Sentences

The Clippers — who somehow keep managing to track down canteens in the desert, only to find them empty — now continue on their walk through the wilderness as they enter decade No.

From FiveThirtyEight

Accelerating climate change, development along wilderness boundaries, and rigid forest management practices have all increased the dangers of devastating wildfires in the state and across much of the American West.

From MIT Technology Review

The places in their network, from Page, Arizona, to Park City, Utah, have seen that they can’t just play off parks or wilderness.

From Outside Online

Instead the airdrop serves, at great expense, to save trees in the wilderness, where burning, not suppression, might well do more good.

From ProPublica

Chestnut says that wolverines are sensitive, shy animals that need a lot of help to recolonize the wilderness they were hunted out of.

From Popular-Science

They carved a refuge out of the wilderness and then, in 200 years, built it into the most powerful nation on earth.

From The Daily Beast

The original metaphor was: erect a wall to keep the garden of the church free from the wilderness of politics.

From The Daily Beast

Hold the Dark is set in the Alaskan wilderness, in an isolated village at the lip of the tundra.

From The Daily Beast

I went back while Lorne [Michaels] was on his 5-year jaunt in the wilderness, and Ebersol was producing.

From The Daily Beast

In short, the wilderness skills and outdoor abilities that the founding mothers intended.

From The Daily Beast

And it shall devour the mountains, and burn the wilderness, and consume all that is green as with fire.

From Project Gutenberg

Never did I feel leaving anybody or any place so much, and Berlin seems to me like a great roaring wilderness.

From Project Gutenberg

That made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the prison to his prisoners?

From Project Gutenberg

When one thinks in the wilderness, alone, Felipe, many things become clear.

From Project Gutenberg

Next day they buried him under the shade of a spreading tree, and left him there—alone in the wilderness.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• back country
• desert
• forest
• jungle
• outback
• wasteland