wilderness

CEFRB2

/ˈwɪldənəs/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A large natural area where people have built very little.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A place other than land (for example, the air or sea) that is uncared for, and therefore devoted to disorder or wildness.

Examples

  • Can you hike for days in the wilderness without seeing anyone?

  • The garden is turning into a wilderness.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /-nɪs/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. An ornamental part of a garden or park cultivated with trees and often a maze to evoke a natural wilderness.

  2. Uncultivated and unsettled land in its natural state inhabited by wild animals and with vegetation growing wild; (countable) a tract of such land; a waste or wild.

  3. Unrefinedness; wildness.

More examples

In context

  • For ſtill he traueild through wide waſtfull ground, / That nought but deſert wilderneſſe ſhewed all around.

  • O my poore kingdome! ſicke with ciuill blowes: / VVhen that my care could not withhold thy riots, / VVhat wilt thou do when riot is thy care? / O thou wilt be a wilderneſſe againe, / Peopled with woolues, thy old inhabitants.

  • Here they ascended, and anon appeared to descend in the same direction, finding only boundless wildernesses, and varied combinations of tangled woodland scenery.

Synonyms

Quick test

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The explorers hiked for days into the blank where no humans had ever settled.

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Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English wildernes, wildernesse (“desolate or uninhabited place, desolation”) [and other forms], and then either: * from Middle English wilderne (“deserted or uninhabited place, wilderness; land not yet settled”) [and other forms] (from Old English wilddeōren (“savage, wild”); see below) + -nes, -nesse (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting qualities or states); or * from Old English *wildēornes, *wilddēornes, either from wilddēor (“wild animal”) [and other forms] or wilddēoren (“savage, wild”) (from wilddēor + -en (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘consisting of; material made of’)) + -nes (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting qualities or states). Wilddēor is derived...