Einen Ort vollständig zerstören.
To destroy a place completely.
Couldn’t load the audio. Please try again.
See how the word “verwüsten” is used in sentences
Die Flut verwüstete die Küstenstädte. — The flood devastated the coastal towns.
Die Nachricht hat seine Eltern zutiefst erschüttert. — The news devastated his parents.
Ein einziges Feuer kann ein ganzes Viertel verwüsten. — A single fire can devastate a whole neighborhood.
Eine solche Nachricht würde sie zerstören. — Such a message would devastate her.
Stürme verwüsten diese Inseln fast jedes Jahr. — Storms devastate these islands almost every year.
Sag es ihm noch nicht, es wird ihn umhauen. — Don't tell him yet, it will devastate him.
Check a word only if you could give at least one of its meanings.
words — the estimated size of your passive German vocabulary
Turn the gaps into your vocabulary
Download the app for free German vocabulary testVerwüsten is built on Wüste, desert — to verwüsten a place is to turn it into a wasteland. The image is plainer than English devastate, which comes from Latin vastare and hides its meaning.
And German holds the line English blurs: verwüsten applies only to places. For the person sense of devastate, German has no verb at all and uses a phrase — am Boden zerstört sein — which is why an English speaker looking for one word will not find it.
Wüste desert
The root, and the whole image: to devastate is to make a desert of.
zerstören to destroy
General destruction, of a building or an object. Verwüsten needs an area.
ruinieren to ruin
Weaker and wider, and it stretches to a ruined evening — as English ruin does.
Your own vocabulary
Learn the words you actually need
A ready-made word card
Translation, examples and audio appear on their own
We help you not forget
We bring words back to practice at the right moment
Add real-life words — VibeLing reinforces them until they become automatic.
Add “verwüsten” to your vocabulary and learn it with translation, audio and spaced repetition — right in the app.
