terribly

adverb

ter·​ri·​bly ˈter-ə-blē How to pronounce terribly (audio)
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.

Examples of terribly in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Kind's expertise at playing characters who are equal parts sweet, slightly exasperated, and terribly nervous makes his role as Marty Glouberman a stroke of casting genius, sounding like the kind of guy who's always just about to knock a lamp off the table. Debby Wolfinsohn, EW.com, 6 Mar. 2024 Nintendo also has a history of not being able to transition from one majorly successful console generation to another terribly well, at least recently. Paul Tassi, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024 The most popular trope on theme park rides is that something will go terribly wrong, or an obstacle will fall into your way. Robert Niles, Orange County Register, 25 Feb. 2024 Compounding this, butchery as a trade is no longer a terribly attractive profession. Olivia Potts, Longreads, 15 Feb. 2024 The survivors made sense of this in their belief that who lived and who died was for God alone to decide, as is made clear in the 1993 movie, when the pilot, suffering terribly from his injuries, begs the others to shoot him. Madeleine Kearns, National Review, 8 Feb. 2024 There’s a good argument that Xi’s been missing Trump terribly since January 2021. William Pesek, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2024 These insects can be terribly annoying but they're not known to spread disease, according to the CDC, even after feeding on multiple hosts. John Tufts, The Courier-Journal, 23 Feb. 2024 Josh Reynolds did not have an explanation for why things went so terribly wrong in the second half, a day after the Detroit Lions lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game. Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press, 30 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'terribly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of terribly was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near terribly

Cite this Entry

“Terribly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terribly. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

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