decimated
Laid waste to
Decimated means severely reduced or destroyed.
The word originally referred to the Roman military punishment of killing one in ten soldiers, but modern usage ignores this ratio—something decimated has been devastated, not reduced by exactly ten percent.
The population was decimated by disease.
Budget cuts decimated the department.
Pedants insist on the historical meaning, but common usage has long since won.
Completely destroyed, nothing remaining
- obliteratedUtterly and completely destroyed
- wiped outUtterly without remaining energy
- demolishedCompletely destroyed a structure
- destroyedMade to cease existing
ravaged · ruined · shattered · crushed · pulverized · razed · leveled · flattened
annihilated
Completely destroyed, nothing remaining
- obliteratedUtterly and completely destroyed
- wiped outUtterly without remaining energy
- demolishedCompletely destroyed a structure
destroyed · ravaged · ruined · shattered · crushed · pulverized · razed · leveled · flattened · wrecked
depleted
Severely reduced or emptied
- diminishedMade or became smaller
- thinnedReduced in concentration
- culledSelected for removal
slashed · gutted · downsized · shrunk · dwindled · curtailed · pruned · cut down · whittled · eroded
- demolishedbeaten, defeated, crushed, destroyed, demolished
- destroyeddestroyed, demolished, annihilated, obliterated, devastated
- ruinedruined, destroyed, wrecked, demolished, obliterated
- extinctionmass extinction, dodo, extinct, extinction event, extinction rate
- damageddamaged, broken, wrecked, ruined, destroyed
decimatedpreserved
Kept from deterioration
protected · safeguarded · spared · intact · saved
decimatedmultiplied
Increased by repeated addition
flourished · thrived · proliferated · expanded · grew
decimatedbuilt
Constructed or assembled
created · constructed · rebuilt · restored · established
decimate, decimation, decimating, decimates, decimator, decimations, decimators