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

• achingly
• almighty
• archly
• awful
• awfully
• badly
• beastly
• blisteringly
• bone
• colossally
• corking
• cracking
• damn
• damned
• dang
• deadly
• desperately
• eminently
• enormously
• especially
• ever
• exceedingly
• exceeding
• extra
• extremely
• fabulously
• fantastically
• far
• fiercely
• filthy
• frightfully
• full
• greatly
• heavily
• highly
• hugely
• immensely
• incredibly
• intensely
• jolly
• majorly
• mightily
• mighty
• monstrous [chiefly dialect]
• mortally
• most
• much
• particularly
• passing
• rattling
• real
• really
• right
• roaring
• roaringly
• seriously
• severely
• so
• sore
• sorely
• spanking
• specially
• stinking
• such
• super
• supremely
• surpassingly
• that
• thumping
• too
• unco
• uncommonly
• vastly
• very
• vitally
• way
• whacking
• wicked
• wildly

Examples of terribly in a Sentence

I'm terribly sorry to bother you

Recent Examples on the Web

That number is not terribly surprising, given that the La Mesa medical facility treated the 10th-most acute strokes in the state and handled the largest volume in San Diego County in 2023, according to state data. —Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 May 2025

The wine list is strikingly good and (also strikingly) not terribly expensive. —Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 18 May 2025

When young Filipino au pair Ruby Tan vanishes from one of Denmark’s wealthiest neighborhoods, just north of Copenhagen, her neighbor Cecilie (Marie Bach Hansen) becomes convinced something is terribly wrong. —Isadora Wandermurem, Time, 16 May 2025

Trump is terribly bad and the Democrats are always the innocent and brave. —Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 12 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for terribly

• unbearably