Painfully

//ˈpeɪnfəli// adv, slang

adv, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a painful manner; as if in pain.

    "I limped painfully down the stairs."

  2. 2
    Badly; poorly. informal

    "That was the most painfully sung rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon” that I’ve ever heard."

Adverb
  1. 1
    unpleasantly wordnet
  2. 2
    in or as if in pain wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
distressinglyabominablyagonizinglyarduouslyawfullybadly

Example

More examples

"The sudden glare impinged painfully on his eyes."

Etymology

From Middle English peinfully, paynefully, equivalent to painful + -ly.

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