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woefully

When you do something in a way that expresses how very sad or mournful you feel, you do it woefully. You can also use this adverb for things that are done really badly, like your woefully sloppy cake decorations.

If you sigh woefully, "I miss my friend who moved away," you're speaking in a voice full of sorrow and longing. And if you graduate from high school not knowing how to speak even rudimentary Spanish, you can say that you are woefully lacking in foreign language skills. The "sorrowfully" meaning is the older of the two, but the "terribly" meaning is slightly more common. Woefully and woe are rooted in the Old English lamentation wa!

Definitions of woefully
  1. adverb
    in an unfortunate or deplorable manner
    “it was woefully inadequate”
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘woefully'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
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