Vocabulary
Devastate
English and Urdu gloss, synonyms and antonyms, and example usage from our editorial sentence cache where available.
English meaning
destroy or ruin.
Urdu meaning
اجاڑنا، تباہ کرنا
Example sentences (from Dawn)
Sentences are selected from stored editorial text where your search word appears. If none appear yet, run the admin sentence generator for fuller coverage.
- When debts spiral, violence follows sometimes ending in suicides that devastate entire families.
- Unless we radically overhaul our disaster preparedness and invest in agricultural resilience, each new flood event will drown villages, devastate livelihoods and reduce growth.
- These extreme events, where rain greater than or equal to 100mm falls hourly, can devastate communities within minutes.
- Mercifully, no loss of life has been reported, but it is disappointing to watch calamities devastate underprivileged populations, especially the urban poor.
- An academic and expert who led the development of the Pakistan Building Code has warned that an earthquake measuring 5 or 6 on the Richter scale could devastate the city because of the questionable safety standards of most buildings.
Synonyms
destroy, leave in ruins, ruin, lay waste, wreck, wreak havoc on, ransack, ravage,
Antonyms
build, reconstruct, preserve, restore
Curator example
“the city was devastated by a huge earthquake”
More vocabulary to explore
About this vocabulary section.
These entries support close reading of Dawn editorials and opinion pieces: short definitions,
Urdu equivalents where we have them, word relations, and—when generated—real lines from the editorial archive
so you can see tone and usage.
Common questions
- Do I need to sign up to use this vocabulary page?
- No. Word pages are open to everyone. You can read meanings in English and Urdu, synonyms and antonyms, and example sentences without creating an account.
- Where do the example sentences come from?
- When available, example sentences are drawn from cached matches in our Dawn editorial corpus so you can see how a word is used in real newsroom-style prose.
- How is this different from a dictionary?
- This section is curated for students preparing for competitive exams and editorial reading. Entries are compact, often include Urdu glosses, and are paired with in-context lines from editorials when we have them.
