terribly

adverb

ter·​ri·​bly ˈter-ə-blē 

ˈte-rə-

1

: to an extreme degree : very, extremely

became terribly ill

had a terribly nice time

got terribly excited

I had tried a little radio before the war and hadn't been terribly impressed with it at the time.

—Walter Cronkite

He and Jimmy got into a quarrel about the girl's being fired, and it got terribly bitter.

—Virginia Foster Durr

2

: in a terrible way : very badly, poorly, or unpleasantly

behaving terribly

They were treated terribly.

This can be regarded as a somewhat progressive attitude because it is true that women were terribly abused in the Roman world.

—Norman F. Cantor

And then the next year I played terribly and finished close to last.

—Gene Littler

3

: very much

I miss you terribly.

Synonyms of terribly

• extremely
• very
• incredibly
• too
• highly
• badly
• so
• damned
• damn
• severely
• really
• desperately
• seriously
• far
• intensely
• greatly

Examples of terribly in a Sentence

I'm terribly sorry to bother you

Recent Examples on the Web

All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong. —Jim Vertuno, Chicago Tribune, 8 Apr. 2026

Most everything on the market looks terribly reminiscent of the outdoor malls that plague the valleys of Southern California. —Julia Harrison, Architectural Digest, 6 Apr. 2026

The new Attorney General is apt to be just as destructive as Bondi—maybe even more so, given that Bondi, who had little familiarity with the federal legal system, was not terribly effective in the job. —Ruth Marcus, New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2026

In his absence was a grievance fest about a nation heading terribly off course, with foes at every turn to defy the greatness for which MAGA yearns. —Alex J. Rouhandeh, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for terribly

• unbearably