awful
356
1.3
- adjective
- /ˈɔːfəl/
- Informal
- That makes an awful lot of sense.
- an awful lot
- an awful lot of people
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Watch on YouTubeLike like an attraction, like a awful lot of German women.
- Like like an attraction, like a awful lot of German women.
- He's actually not saying an awful lot in that section.
- He also doesn't need an awful lot in order to to be doing well.
- I've made an awful lot of mistakes in my life.
- So I went to the pool awful, awful lot.
- And this is awful, awful, awful, awful cute from like this is cute.
- I've timed it an awful lot that I can do.
- So I have actually interviewed and spent time with an awful lot of people in prostitution.
- If the IT can be very small, but have an awful lot of stuff in there.
Examples
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He's been up there an awful lot, Aunt Grace said.
Fiction book (1999) -
I've made an awful lot of mistakes in my life.
-
And we tried an awful lot of plants, right?
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And now I just have an awful lot of time to kill.
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Which is an awful lot of work.
-
I know the two of you have been spending an awful lot of time together.
-
- You know, it seems like an awful lot of bad decisions have been made recently.
-
We waste an awful lot of time that could be spent on better things.
Academic text (1997) -
I put an awful lot of work in at the front end.
Academic text (2005) -
This new project is going to take an awful lot of work to complete.
Synonyms
392
1.4
To a very great degree, often before words like cold or sad
340
1.4
To show strong feeling or degree
44
8.0
An informal word meaning very, often used in New England
17
4.4
Shows that something is very bad, unpleasant, or extreme
12
6.0
To emphasize something, like saying very
8
5.4
To make a describing word much stronger
6
6.9
An informal way to mean very or extremely
5
5.8
In a way that is very strong or extreme
1
8.2
People use it informally to mean very before adjectives
How Strong
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Awful is also used informally to mean 'very'. This use grew from the old senses 'full of awe' and 'very frightening', and over time the strong feeling became a simple intensifier meaning 'very'.