What's the difference between devastation and havoc?

Devastation


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of devastating, or the state of being devastated; a laying waste.
  • (n.) Waste of the goods of the deceased by an executor or administrator.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It appears that irrespective of the elucidation of the nature of the putative aetiological factor (presumed to be viral) in MS, the arrest and reversal of T cell-related events within the CNS in this devastating condition represent feasible goals and should remain a major target for some time to come.
  • (2) Samaras said: A "Grexit", as it is called, would be devastating for Greece and detrimental to Europe.
  • (3) While winds gusting to 170mph caused significant damage, the devastation in areas such as Tacloban – where scenes are reminiscent of the 2004 Indian ocean tsunami – was principally the work of the 6-metre-high storm surge, which carried away even the concrete buildings in which many people sought shelter.
  • (4) The Financial Services Authority is meant to be the City's watchdog but "devastating" internal documents reveal it has secretly co-ordinated high-level lobbying strategies with the industry it is supposed to police.
  • (5) The government acknowledged it had been overwhelmed by the devastation from the deadliest quake in Nepal in over 80 years.
  • (6) Mark Rasch, a cyber crime expert quoted by the FT, meanwhile said recent events have been “a serious and devastating attack to [Sony’s] reputation and image”, and his opinion is played out by a new YouGov poll into the public perception of Sony’s brand.
  • (7) "When people don't feel they have a reason to stay out of trouble, the consequences for communities can be devastating – as we saw last August," said Darra Singh, chair of the panel.
  • (8) Newcastle United are “devastated” by their relegation from the Premier League, according to the club’s managing director Lee Charnley.
  • (9) In order to reduce the devasting effects of enteric diseases among children born to mothers in tropical countries of Africa and Asia, it is imperative that all health workers understand the cultural and social perceptions of their clients towards the disease in question.
  • (10) All the personality, dignity and humanity of a person are devastated by this torture.
  • (11) Age UK believes McDonald's human rights have been breached and that there could be "extremely adverse and devastating consequences for many thousands of older people if other councils take similar decisions to save money".
  • (12) And then, as the Guardian revealed at the weekend, there is the potentially devastating effect of the boundary changes, which can’t really be brought in before an early election but will radically tilt the field by 2020.
  • (13) He said: "[That] could be devastating for the renewables industry.
  • (14) To say that the loss of BB King is devastating to the blues community is an understatement.
  • (15) 'Devastated' Peter Greste calls on Egypt's president to pardon trio Read more “It’s ironic that the conviction was for tarnishing Egypt’s reputation when ... this [case] is what’s tarnished Egypt’s image,” Clooney told BBC News.
  • (16) The report, extracts of which were published by the investigative news website Exaro , is said to include “devastating detail” of the corporation’s “sheer scale of awareness” of the late star’s activities.
  • (17) Although anterior and posterior traumatic displacement of cervical vertebrae are commonly noted, and the devastating neurological deficits associated with these injuries have been amply defined, lateral displacement with fractures has been rarely recognized, and the clinical significance of this injury has been overlooked.
  • (18) Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met commissioner, said a report revealing the undercover officers had spied on the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence was “devastating” for Scotland Yard and “one of the worst days that I have seen as a police officer”.
  • (19) The case for halting British arms sales to Saudi Arabia has been evident, not only on moral grounds, since civilians started dying in the conflict devastating Yemen.
  • (20) Devastating neurologic complications can be avoided or alleviated in a great proportion of patients undergoing radiation therapy for cerebral metastases and spinal cord compression.

Havoc


Definition:

  • (n.) Wide and general destruction; devastation; waste.
  • (v. t.) To devastate; to destroy; to lay waste.
  • (n.) A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Pakistan has been elected as the scapegoat because the Lashkar-e-Taiba, widely believed to be behind the Mumbai attacks, are based there and have been the chosen agents of the country's intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence, for creating havoc in Kashmir in the past.
  • (2) Even digital news, which has wreaked havoc on all other news, finds the advertising revenues that support it dwindling (or failing to grow).
  • (3) Last month, for example, the Daily Telegraph's Peter Oborne bemoaned their "devastating" fate, in a piece worth quoting at reasonable length, if only to prove that the idea of an out-of-touch elite blithely wreaking havoc is not the preserve of hard-bitten lefties.
  • (4) Though the al-Shabaab camps are not on the scale of those seen a decade ago, the National Security Council has been warned that it only takes one extremist to return home unnoticed to create potential havoc.
  • (5) It was a fairly valiant attempt from Manchester United , but as their players grew leggy from chasing shadows, they dropped deep and let Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery wreak their unique brand of havoc.
  • (6) Rajoy’s hope is that Sánchez’s failure in the upcoming investiture vote wreaks havoc inside the PSOE, potentially opening the door to a scenario that might favour him.
  • (7) Six years later, as the cultural revolution wreaked havoc, young Xi was dispatched to the dusty, impoverished north-western province of Shaanxi to "learn from the masses".
  • (8) Chief executive John Walden said retailers have learned their lesson from last year’s Black Friday sales bonanza, which wreaked havoc on the high street and hit shops’ profits in the run-up to Christmas.
  • (9) Walk more Saño, who shot to fame in 2013 for breaking down in tears and fasting for two weeks at UN climate talks after typhoon Haiyan wreaked havoc in his country, is currently walking 1,500km from Rome to this year’s conference in Paris.
  • (10) But at least they won it, Kim Jung-woo causing mild havoc in the area with a free kick in from the right, Lugano forced to head behind.
  • (11) The "blue" in "Blue Labour" comes from a conservative conviction that market forces, unconstrained, play havoc with the fabric of people's lives.
  • (12) These and other voters could also be attracted to the AfD by media reports that a strong showing for the party could wreak havoc with parliamentary arithmetic.
  • (13) But the US, Israel and other western spy agencies have also spent years slipping faulty parts into black market consignments of equipment heading to Iran – each designed to wreak havoc inside the delicate machinery requirement for enrichment.
  • (14) Patchy showers will continue throughout the weekend in some areas, she added, though in general conditions would be much drier than last weekend, when heavy rain and winds wrought havoc across south-west England and Wales.
  • (15) On the Apollo missions, lunar dust got everywhere – the crews inhaled it and got it in their eyes, and it wreaked mechanical havoc – and on Mars the dust is even more problematic, because it is highly oxidised, chemically reactive, electrically charged and windblown.
  • (16) "The effect on Kenya's export industries is catastrophic as much of the country's exports are based on fresh produce, and a lack of reliable power creates havoc with irrigation and temperature controls in greenhouses," says Steve Mutiso, Oxfam's disaster risk reduction officer.
  • (17) Exactly one year ago, fierce winter weather was causing havoc across the UK .
  • (18) It's also the product of the wider crisis of neoliberal capitalism that first erupted in the banking system five years ago and has since wreaked havoc on public finances, jobs, services and living standards throughout the western world.
  • (19) They were widely derided for being the "Postman Pats" of international terrorism, but the Welsh nationalists' prolific firebombing campaign of holiday cottages begun at the end of the 1970s caused havoc in the rural idyll of the Lleyn peninsula.
  • (20) The storm caused havoc on six of the country's 7,107 islands, so most resorts and tourists activities are open and fully functional, and those that were hit are quickly getting back on their feet in the run up to December and January, two of their busiest months of the year.