Badly

//ˈbæd.li// adj, adv

adj, adv ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Ill, unwell. Northern-England

    "He's never badly."

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a bad manner.

    "Things are going badly for her: she did badly in her exams owing to a badly designed studying schedule."

  2. 2
    Very much; to a great degree.

    "I want it so badly."

Adverb
  1. 1
    (‘ill’ is often used as a combining form) in a poor or improper or unsatisfactory manner; not well wordnet
  2. 2
    with unusual distress or resentment or regret or emotional display wordnet
  3. 3
    unfavorably or with disapproval wordnet
  4. 4
    in a disadvantageous way; to someone's disadvantage wordnet
  5. 5
    without skill or in a displeasing manner wordnet
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    to a severe or serious degree wordnet
  2. 7
    very much; strongly wordnet
  3. 8
    with great intensity (‘bad’ is a nonstandard variant for ‘badly’) wordnet
  4. 9
    in a disobedient or naughty way wordnet
  5. 10
    evilly or wickedly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
poorlymischievouslyseriouslyacutelyafieldamiss

Example

More examples

"Don't speak badly of him in his absence."

Etymology

From Middle English badly, baddely, baddeliche, equivalent to bad + -ly.

Related phrases

badly offbadly packed kebabbadly-off

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.