variants
or less commonly woful
1
: full of woe : grievous
woeful prophecies
2
: involving or bringing woe
3
: lamentably bad or serious : deplorable
woeful ignorance
Synonyms
Examples of woeful in a Sentence
The puppy had woeful eyes.
The student's grades were woeful.
Recent Examples on the Web
Instead, in a woeful start to what has been a career-worst season, the 33-year-old is looking even more lost than ever before.
—
Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2024
Doncic also shot 6-of-20 from the field and was woeful from 3 once again, only making two of his nine attempts behind the arc.
—Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 May 2024
Someone began talking about the cemetery and its woeful state of disrepair and suggested that the Boy Scouts be recruited to clean it up.
—Mary Carole McCauley, Baltimore Sun, 10 Apr. 2024
Beating the woeful Rockies again Thursday would be a welcome way to end this 10-game road trip which the Giants started by anemically losing the first two of three in Boston before getting swept in a four-game visit to Philadelphia.
—Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 8 May 2024
The Kansas City Royals wanted a new mindset in the clubhouse, a cohesion that shows how different this year’s club is from last season’s historically woeful edition.
—Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 7 Apr. 2024
The story opens with its most suspenseful action: a bombing by an IRA platoon in Belfast that accidentally kills a group of young children, setting a woeful tone for the rest of the proceedings.
—J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 28 Mar. 2024
One perspective sees the whole saga as a woeful mistake.
—Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
Burks, White and Braun upgrade a woeful linebacker corps and Gardner-Johnson is a natural prickly fit at safety.
—Clarence E. Hill Jr., Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 Mar. 2024
Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2024
Doncic also shot 6-of-20 from the field and was woeful from 3 once again, only making two of his nine attempts behind the arc.
—Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 May 2024
Someone began talking about the cemetery and its woeful state of disrepair and suggested that the Boy Scouts be recruited to clean it up.
—Mary Carole McCauley, Baltimore Sun, 10 Apr. 2024
Beating the woeful Rockies again Thursday would be a welcome way to end this 10-game road trip which the Giants started by anemically losing the first two of three in Boston before getting swept in a four-game visit to Philadelphia.
—Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 8 May 2024
The Kansas City Royals wanted a new mindset in the clubhouse, a cohesion that shows how different this year’s club is from last season’s historically woeful edition.
—Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 7 Apr. 2024
The story opens with its most suspenseful action: a bombing by an IRA platoon in Belfast that accidentally kills a group of young children, setting a woeful tone for the rest of the proceedings.
—J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 28 Mar. 2024
One perspective sees the whole saga as a woeful mistake.
—Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
Burks, White and Braun upgrade a woeful linebacker corps and Gardner-Johnson is a natural prickly fit at safety.
—Clarence E. Hill Jr., Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'woeful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near woeful
Cite this Entry
“Woeful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woeful. Accessed 28 May. 2024.
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