Basic Details
Word: Deserted
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Empty, with no people in it; also left alone by someone who should have stayed.
Synonyms: empty, abandoned, lonely, desolate
Antonyms: crowded, busy, populated
Sounds like: dessert (a sweet dish eaten at the end of a meal)
How to Spell Deserted
Syllables: de - sert - ed
Tricky part: There is one s, as in desert, the dry land. With two s's it turns into the sweet dish dessert, so desserted is wrong.
Watch out for: desserted, dezerted, desertted
Memory tip: A desert is dry and empty, with one lonely s, like a deserted street. Dessert gets two s's because you always want a second helping.
Usage Examples
Example 1: The beach was deserted on the cold, rainy morning.
Example 2: By midnight the market square was completely deserted.
Example 3: The kitten had been deserted by its mother.
Fun Fact
Kuldhara, a village near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, has stood deserted for about two hundred years, and tourists visit its empty stone houses.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word deserted as used in the sentence:
The usually busy bus stand was deserted during the curfew.
a) crowded
b) empty
c) abandoned
d) lonely
Show answer
a) crowded. Crowded means full of people, while the other three mean the place was empty.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
desserted
a) e
b) r
c) s
d) t
Show answer
c) s. Deserted comes from desert, with one s; two s's belong to dessert.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
After the fair ended, the field looked tredsede and strewn with paper cups.
a) detested
b) destined
c) deserted
d) deserved
Show answer
c) deserted. There is no v, second t or n in the jumble, so it spells deserted.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these is a dessert, not a desert?
a) the Gobi
b) kheer
c) the Sahara
d) the Thar
Show answer
b) kheer
2. A soldier who deserts the army ____.
a) leads a parade
b) wins a medal
c) trains new recruits
d) leaves without permission
Show answer
d) leaves without permission
