woeful

adjective

woe·ful ˈwō-fəl

variants or less commonly woful

Synonyms of woeful next

: full of woe : grievous

woeful prophecies

: involving or bringing woe

: lamentably bad or serious : deplorable

woeful ignorance

woefully

ˈwō-f(ə-)lē

adverb

woefulness

ˈwō-fəl-nəs

noun

Example Sentences

The puppy had woeful eyes. The student's grades were woeful.

Recent Examples on the Web And while FanGraphs’ advanced metrics point to Lynn having some positive regression based on his 6.16 xERA and 5.90 FIP (both are lower than his 7.59 ERA), those numbers are still pretty woeful. —

Michael Arinze, Chicago Tribune, 24 Apr. 2023 However, the female characters’ relationships with each other are woeful. —

Courtney Howard, Variety, 21 Apr. 2023 Yet the team’s pitching — admittedly, at a time when the ball is flying at Fenway Park in a fashion almost never seen at the start of the season — has been woeful. —

Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 3 Apr. 2023 That setback ended slim playoff hopes for Cleveland, but kept the 6-9 Saints alive in the race for the division title in the woeful NFC South. —

cleveland, 1 Jan. 2023 By comparison, the original Countach is woeful. —

Mike Duff, Car and Driver, 28 Nov. 2022 The Steelers’ woeful offense scored a season-high 30 points. —

Jason Williams, The Enquirer, 23 Nov. 2022 Nowhere is the Broncos’ woeful offense more pronounced than after halftime. —

Mark Heim | Mheim@al.com, al, 30 Oct. 2022 To illustrate just how woeful these teams were, Houston's .315 winning percentage in 2013 remains the fifth-lowest for by an MLB club since 1965. —

Josh Criswell, Chron, 14 Oct. 2022 See More

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