Wasteness

//ˈweɪstnəs// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being laid waste; desolation. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,"

  2. 2
    The state of being uncultivated; wild, barren. archaic, countable, uncountable

    "Under her rays, the ground over which we passed assumed a more interesting appearance than during the broad day-light, which discovered the extent of its wasteness."

  3. 3
    A wilderness. countable, obsolete, uncountable

    "She of nought affrayd, / Through woods and wastnesse wide him daily sought"

Synonyms

All synonyms
wilderness

Example

More examples

"That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,"

Etymology

From Middle English wastnesse; equivalent to waste + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian woestens (“wildness, savagery, fierceness”), Dutch woestenis (“wasteland”), German Wüstnis (“desert, wasteland”).

Related phrases

lay waste

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.