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View synonyms for devastating

devastating

[ dev-uh-stey-ting ]

adjective

  1. tending or threatening to devastate:

    a devastating fire.

  2. satirical, ironic, or caustic in an effective way:

    a devastating portrayal of society.



devastating

/ ˈdɛvəˌsteɪtɪŋ /

adjective

  1. extremely effective in a destructive way

    a devastating report on urban deprivation

    a devastating war



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Derived Forms

  • ˈdevasˌtatingly, adverb

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Other Words From

  • devas·tating·ly adverb
  • un·devas·tating adjective
  • un·devas·tating·ly adverb

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Word History and Origins

Origin of devastating1

First recorded in 1625–35; devastat(e) + -ing 2

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Example Sentences

As devastating as the fires have become, we’re still just at the early edge of climate change, says Diego Saez-Gil, chief executive of Pachama, a startup using AI and satellite data to help restore and protect forests.

Just a few weeks after Hurricane Laura—the strongest storm on record to make landfall in Louisiana—brought devastating storm surges and rainfall to the Gulf Coast, there are now five more named storms in the Atlantic.

Learning of safety issues after millions of healthy people have been vaccinated would be devastating to the nation’s health and public confidence.

From Fortune

My sense was that of all the devastating consequences of a warming planet — changing landscapes, pandemics, mass extinctions — the potential movement of hundreds of millions of climate refugees across the planet stands to be among the most important.

Every week, we lose far more of our fellow citizens than died 19 years ago in the most devastating terrorist strike in American history.

On the other hand, if you think about it, those basic industrial effects can be the most devastating.

The premise was simple: satire is devastating against tyrants.

Gopal, a journalist who covered the war, gives a devastating account of how the conflict was astoundingly mishandled.

The event was a devastating one for Sierra Leone, deemed a “super-spreader” by The New York Times.

Though devastating for the individual, this form is not that large a public health concern.

This may mean that up to May he had remained in command in the north, though keeping clear of Bruce's devastating track.

It was chosen as the seat of Elizabeth's parliament when the plague was devastating London.

The deadly coil has made possible the devastating spectacle in Europe, which we are helplessly looking on.

It was perhaps no greater power than many another woman possesses, but to me she was particularly devastating.

A still more devastating revelation of experience in child raising was yet to plague our confidence and complacency.

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