Definition of WILDERNESS

wilderness

Meanings

Plural: wildernesses

Noun

  • (politics) a state of disfavor
    • "he led the Democratic party back from the wilderness"
  • a wooded region in northeastern Virginia near Spotsylvania where bloody but inconclusive battles were fought in the American Civil War
  • a wild and uninhabited area left in its natural condition
    • "it was a wilderness preserved for the hawks and mountaineers"
  • a bewildering profusion
    • "the duties of citizenship are lost sight of in the wilderness of interests of individuals and groups"
    • "a wilderness of masts in the harbor"
  • 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.
  • A place other than land (for example, the air or sea) that is uncared for, and therefore devoted to disorder or wildness.
  • An ornamental part of a garden or park cultivated with trees and often a maze to evoke a natural wilderness.
  • Unrefinedness; wildness.
  • Chiefly followed by of: a bewildering flock or throng; a large, often jumbled, collection of things.
  • A place or situation that is bewildering and in which one may get lost.
  • Preceded by in the: a situation of disfavour or lack of recognition; (specifically, politics) of a politician, political party, etc.: a situation of being out of office.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English wildernes, wildernesse (“uninhabited, uncultivated, or wild territory; desolate land; desert; (figuratively) depopulated or devastated place; state of devastation or ruin; human experience and life”) [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, probably from wilddēor (“wild animal”) [and other forms] or more likely from 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 from wilde (“savage, wild”) (ultimately either from Proto-Indo-European *wel-, *welw- (“hair, wool; ear of corn, grass; forest”), or *gʷʰel- (“wild”)) + dēor (“beast, wild animal”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwes- (“to breathe; breath; soul, spirit; creature”)).
The English word is cognate with Danish vildnis (“wilderness”), German Wildernis, Wildnis (“wilderness”), Middle Dutch wildernisse (“wilderness”) (modern Dutch wildernis (“wilderness”)), Middle Low German wildernisse (“wilderness”) (German Low German Wildernis (“wilderness”)), Saterland Frisian Wüüldernis (“wilderness”), West Frisian wyldernis (“wilderness”).
Sense 3.3 (“situation of disfavour or lack of recognition”) is a reference to Numbers 14:32–33 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.”

Scrabble Score: 14

wilderness is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
wilderness is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
wilderness is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 16

wilderness is a valid Words With Friends word