woefully
- adverb
- /ˈwoʊfəli/
- Coming back to Linda's comment, I think that the good teachers in our school systems are woefully underpaid.
- woefully inadequate
- woefully lacking
- woefully unprepared
It's not just that we fall woefully short of realizing the ideal.
- It's not just that we fall woefully short of realizing the ideal.
- It ranges from maybe being a little narcissistic to being woefully narcissistic.
- So there's a lot of investment in making families work even when they are woefully broken.
- And it's like counts as real progress, I think, but it leaves lots of things woefully unanswered.
- And that's a place where we are woefully inadequate in terms of including female animals and female cells.
- Also, I was so woefully unaware of of popular music because my dad raised me on classic rock.
Examples
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The town records are woefully incomplete.
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But I also recognize that there are times when representative government woefully fails the people.
Academic text (2009) -
And, and what it ultimately came to represent is this team performed woefully and they performed like a group of individuals.
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The pictures are woefully incomplete much of the time on this detail.
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It's not just that we fall woefully short of realizing the ideal.
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So there's a lot of investment in making families work even when they are woefully broken.
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Madam, your observations are woefully inadequate...
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But I regret to say we are woefully understaffed for a house this size.
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We came woefully unprepared.
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The report warned we are, as a nation, still woefully unprepared to meet the threat from terrorism.
Synonyms
To a great degree
In a very bad way
To show that something is unfortunate or disappointing
In a very bad or shocking way
To happen in a very bad or unpleasant way
In a way that is very wrong or extreme
Shows that something is very bad, unpleasant, or extreme
In a way that causes great harm, pain, or sadness
In an extremely bad and obvious way that shocks people
In a very bad or extreme way
In a way that makes people feel sorry for someone or something
Makes people feel shocked or disgusted
In a very bad way that shows poor quality or failure
In a way that makes people feel regret or sadness
In a very bad or shocking way
In a very bad and unpleasant way
In a way that makes something very bad or annoying
In a very bad, shameful way that deserves strong criticism
In a way that makes people worried or upset
Shows that something is very strong or intense
In a way that makes people feel nervous or unsure
Antonyms
How Badly
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Woefully comes from woeful, which is built from woe meaning 'great sadness' and -ful meaning 'full of', with -ly added to make it an adverb. So when something is woefully wrong or lacking, it is 'very' bad or shows a sad, serious problem.