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
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
Women account for a woeful 7% of the board chairs across 15 leading AI companies that are shaping our future world.
—Luba Kassova, Fortune, 8 Mar. 2024
The Heat allowed the woeful Pistons to hang around all night before doing enough late to win for the seventh time in eight games.
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 6 Mar. 2024
In other words: 12 of their 15 losses have come during three woeful stretches.
—Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2024
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
Women account for a woeful 7% of the board chairs across 15 leading AI companies that are shaping our future world.
—Luba Kassova, Fortune, 8 Mar. 2024
The Heat allowed the woeful Pistons to hang around all night before doing enough late to win for the seventh time in eight games.
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 6 Mar. 2024
In other words: 12 of their 15 losses have come during three woeful stretches.
—Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 4 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 15 May. 2024.
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