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

• 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

Plus, those businesses rely on a strong supply chain, which has been terribly disrupted by tariffs in recent months. —Jennifer Castenson, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025

Despite his status as a pop culture icon for close to 50 years now, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has claimed he’s not terribly bothered about being overlooked by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. —Tyler Jenke, Billboard, 14 Aug. 2025

The building blocks of the central child-murderer plot aren’t terribly original on their own, but The Alienist always makes its setting feel indispensable, braiding its police procedural seamlessly into the particulars of social class and police corruption at the turn of the 19th century. —Elle Carroll, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2025

The Republican state legislature in Texas is in the midst of doing something terribly wrong in redrawing the state’s congressional districts to produce more GOP-leaning constituencies. —New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 4 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for terribly

• unbearably