ˈwildə(r)nə̇s noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle English wildernesse, from wildern, wildren wild, savage (from Old English wilddēoren of or like wild beasts, from wilddēor, wildēor, alteration — influenced by dēor beast — of assumed Old English wildor wild beast — whence Old English wildru, plural, wild beasts; akin to Old English wilde untamed, wild) + -nesse -ness — more at wild , deer
1.
a.
(1) : a tract of land or a region (as a forest or a wide barren plain) uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings : wild , waste
(2) : an empty or pathless area or region
in remote wildernesses of space groups of nebulae are found — G.W.Gray b. 1886
(3) : a part of a garden devoted to wild growth
b. : something likened to a wilderness in barrenness, confusion, or dangerousness
the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart — Anne M. Lindbergh
a wilderness of tumbledown shacks and gasworks — T.D.Durrance
a wilderness of sociological theory — H.J.Muller
such a wilderness of black hair that he appeared to be wearing a shako — New Yorker
2. obsolete : wildness
3. : a confusing multitude or mass : a great number or quantity
I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys — Shakespeare