wildernessnoun [ C usually singular ]
uk/ˈwɪl.də.nəs/us/ˈwɪl.dɚ.nəs/C2 an area of land that has not been used to grow crops or had towns and roads built on it, especially because it is difficult to live in as a result of its extremely cold or hot weather or bad earth:
a beautiful mountain wilderness
Alaska is the last great wilderness.
mainly US It's a wilderness area, under the protection of the Parks Department.
an outside area in which plants are left to grow naturally or untidily:
The garden was a wilderness of weeds and overgrown bushes.
More examples
- He abided in the wilderness for forty days.
- The area is a trackless wilderness.
- If he fails to gain the title, it could mean months in the wilderness.
- The area has reverted to wilderness since the mine closed down.
- The northern peninsula is a rocky wilderness.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Geography: deserts, prairies & wildernesses
- Bushman
- common
- desert
- dust bowl
- marginal land
- moor
- moorland
- pampas
- pasture
- plain
- scrub
- steppe
- sward
- tall-grass prairie
- the outback
- tundra
- undeveloped
- waste
- wasteland
- wild
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Idiom(s)
in the wilderness