Desolate vs Austere - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between desolate and austere

is that desolate is deserted and devoid of inhabitants while austere is grim or severe in manner or appearance.

is to deprive of inhabitants.

(en adjective)

Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.

a desolate''' isle; a '''desolate''' wilderness; a '''desolate house

* Bible, Jer. ix. 11

I will make Jerusalem a den of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate , without an inhabitant.

* Tennyson

And the silvery marish flowers that throng / The desolate creeks and pools among.

Barren and lifeless.

Made unfit for habitation or use; laid waste; neglected; destroyed.

desolate altars

Dismal or dreary.

Sad, forlorn and hopeless.

He was left desolate by the early death of his wife.

* Keble

voice of the poor and desolate

(desolat)

To deprive of inhabitants.

To devastate or lay waste somewhere.

To abandon or forsake something.

To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.

* * * ----

(en-adj)

Grim or severe in manner or appearance

The headmistress was an austere old woman.

Lacking trivial decoration; not extravagant or gaudy

The interior of the church was as austere as the parishioners were dour.

* (grim or severe) stern, strict, forbidding * (lacking trivial decoration) simple, plain, unadorned, unembellished

* (not lacking trivial decoration) overwrought, flamboyant, extravagant, gaudy, flashy

* austerity * austerely