hellscape

noun

hell·​scape ˈhel-ˌskāp How to pronounce hellscape (audio)
plural hellscapes
: a hellish landscape : a harshly unpleasant place or environment
I blame growing up in Southern California—this did not prepare me for real winter, much less the frigid hellscape that is New York in January.Aliza Arbabanel
Meanwhile, it's heartbreaking to see Route 33, once called out by Jalopnik as "America's greatest driving road," reduced to this horrifying hellscape. And, of course, to think about all the nearby people and animals and communities being inundated with fire and smoke.Andrew P. Collins

Examples of hellscape in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Today, spurious depictions of South Africa as an anti-white hellscape swim in the same waters. Time, 9 June 2025 The narrative in the TV business has been pretty rough the last few years, some might call it a hellscape. Mikey O'Connell, HollywoodReporter, 28 Apr. 2025 Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them. Jeremy Hanna, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 May 2025 Cue a literal conspiracy theory hellscape with Emma Stone, Austin Butler, and Micheal Ward also joining in on all the increasingly unhinged shenanigans. Radhika Seth, Vogue, 7 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for hellscape

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of hellscape was in 1894

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Cite this Entry

“Hellscape.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hellscape. Accessed 17 Jun. 2025.

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