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

But then this is not exactly a grittily realistic flashback, or one terribly concerned with details of historical timeline. — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 6 Nov. 2026

Less than 30 seconds later, something went terribly wrong and the plane plummeted toward the ground. — Alaa Elassar, CNN Money, 5 Nov. 2026

The North Carolina state legislator Jennifer Balkcom wasn’t terribly well-known before this election cycle. — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 3 Nov. 2026

By focusing on the brain’s extraordinary—and still under-recognized—capacity for repair, Swain doesn’t encourage us to marvel at the many ways in which things can go terribly wrong. — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 2 Nov. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for terribly

• unbearably