hellscape
noun
hell·scape
ˈhel-ˌskāp 
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
Aliza ArbabanelMeanwhile, 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
Andrew P. CollinsExamples of hellscape in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
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
The movie perks up when Michael Keaton and Eva Green arrive as a ruthless impresario and his sensitive acrobat girlfriend, and Burton envisions his obvious Disneyland analog as a capitalist hellscape.
—Josh Bell, Vulture, 21 Mar. 2025
The first season emphasized urban hellscapes — lots of cowering and running in the ruins of Boston, Kansas City and Salt Lake City — while moving toward the open spaces of Wyoming.
—Mike Hale, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2025
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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
The movie perks up when Michael Keaton and Eva Green arrive as a ruthless impresario and his sensitive acrobat girlfriend, and Burton envisions his obvious Disneyland analog as a capitalist hellscape.
—Josh Bell, Vulture, 21 Mar. 2025
The first season emphasized urban hellscapes — lots of cowering and running in the ruins of Boston, Kansas City and Salt Lake City — while moving toward the open spaces of Wyoming.
—Mike Hale, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hellscape
Cite this Entry
“Hellscape.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hellscape. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
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