variants
or less commonly woful
1
: full of woe : grievous
woeful prophecies
2
: involving or bringing woe
3
: lamentably bad or serious : deplorable
woeful ignorance
Synonyms
Examples of woeful in a Sentence
The puppy had woeful eyes.
The student's grades were woeful.
Recent Examples on the Web
During that stretch, his average against fastballs was a woeful .146.
—
Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2024
Worse, the local government green-lighted the Coliseum’s pricey Mount Davis extension—a woeful plastic surgery that obscured the rolling Oakland hills behind the outfield wall—to bring back the NFL’s Raiders.
—Dan Bernstein, Sportico.com, 26 Sep. 2024
By the time that series starts, the woeful White Sox (36-120) should probably have lost a game, breaking their current tie with the legendary 1962 New York Mets for the most losses in the majors since the pitiful 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134 in the National League.
—Chuck Murr, Forbes, 24 Sep. 2024
Over the past month, demonstrations protesting the woeful lack of services and widespread corruption have taken place throughout the country.
—Raad Alkadiri, Foreign Affairs, 3 Mar. 2011
See all Example Sentences for woeful 
Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2024
Worse, the local government green-lighted the Coliseum’s pricey Mount Davis extension—a woeful plastic surgery that obscured the rolling Oakland hills behind the outfield wall—to bring back the NFL’s Raiders.
—Dan Bernstein, Sportico.com, 26 Sep. 2024
By the time that series starts, the woeful White Sox (36-120) should probably have lost a game, breaking their current tie with the legendary 1962 New York Mets for the most losses in the majors since the pitiful 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134 in the National League.
—Chuck Murr, Forbes, 24 Sep. 2024
Over the past month, demonstrations protesting the woeful lack of services and widespread corruption have taken place throughout the country.
—Raad Alkadiri, Foreign Affairs, 3 Mar. 2011
See all Example Sentences for woeful
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.
Dictionary Entries Near woeful
Cite this Entry
“Woeful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woeful. Accessed 14 Oct. 2024.
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