Woefully

adv

adv ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a woeful manner

    "to cry woefully"

  2. 2
    To an unfortunately great extent.

    "woefully inadequate"

Adverb
  1. 1
    in an unfortunate or deplorable manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
agonizinglyawfullybitterlyblatantlycruellydeadly

Example

More examples

"Librarians are woefully underutilized."

Etymology

From Middle English wofully, equivalent to woeful + -ly.

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