woefully

/'woufuli/

Thân thiện

He looked woefully at the empty food bowl.

Definition

Adverb: 1. In a manner expressing or causing great sorrow, grief, or distress. 2. In a manner that is extremely bad, inadequate, or deplorable; to a lamentable degree.

Usage

The adverb "woefully" is used to modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs to indicate that something is done to a degree that is deeply regrettable, pitiful, or severely lacking. It often carries a tone of strong criticism or disappointment regarding the extent of a shortcoming.

Examples

• The team was woefully unprepared for the complexity of the project.
• She realized, woefully late, that she had missed the application deadline.
• Government funding for the arts remains woefully inadequate.
• "I have failed you," he said woefully.

Advanced Usage

• "woefully ignorant/unaware": This common collocation emphasizes a profound and often blameworthy lack of knowledge or awareness about an important matter.
  • Many voters are woefully ignorant of the candidate's actual policy positions.
• "woefully short of": Used to indicate a severe deficiency or shortfall in quantity or quality.
  • Our supplies are woefully short of what is needed for the winter.

Variants and Related Words

• Woeful (adjective): Characterized by, expressing, or causing woe; sorrowful; also very bad or deplorable.
  • a woeful expression; a woeful lack of judgment
• Woe (noun): Great sorrow or distress; also used to denote trouble or misfortune.
  • a tale of woe

Synonyms

• Deplorably: Deserving strong condemnation; shockingly bad.
• Lamentably: In a manner that is regrettable or unfortunate.
• Pathetically: Arousing pity, especially through vulnerability or sadness; also miserably inadequate.
• Dismally: In a gloomy or depressing manner; terribly.
• Pitiably: So as to deserve or arouse pity.

Antonyms

• Adequately: To a satisfactory or acceptable extent.
• Sufficiently: To a degree that meets a need.
• Wonderfully: In a marvelous or extremely pleasing manner.
• Superbly: In an excellent or splendid manner.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• To be woefully lacking (in): To be severely deficient or inadequate in a particular quality or resource.
  • The report was woefully lacking in concrete evidence.

Học thuật

Adverb

1. in an unfortunate or deplorable manner
   • he was sadly neglected
   • it was woefully inadequate

Từ đồng nghĩa

• deplorably
• lamentably
• sadly