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

But in practice, most boards aren’t terribly interested in the minutiae of fiscal responsibility and operational efficiencies. —Matthew Scogin, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025

There’s nothing terribly significant about the six-month mark since the Eaton and Palisades fires, or any other history-book disaster. —Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2025

Collins, a powerful player and chair of the all-important Appropriations panel, is not terribly difficult to understand, politically speaking. —Philip Elliott, Time, 9 July 2025

In the months after the fire, six bodies remained unclaimed and unidentified, most of them terribly burned. —Jordan Friedman, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for terribly

• unbearably