as in bitterly
with feelings of bitterness or grief
agonizingly made the decision to have her beloved cat put to sleep
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Recent Examples of agonizingly
Mike Holloway had come agonizingly close before.
—
Edgar Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 10 June 2026
Fletcher is a bruising back who could have gone to the NFL this past spring, but chose to stick around Coral Gables and take another crack at winning a national championship after the Canes fell agonizingly close in January.
—Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 3 June 2026
By online standards, though, the wait to bring charges—just a few days—was agonizingly long, and Dhillon complained on X about MAGA supporters heckling her to move faster.
—Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic, 21 May 2026
Instead, we’re treated to a series of agonizingly torpid scenes in which Nita and her co-workers are incepted by the power of Adam’s fiction, which comes to assume the force of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 14 May 2026
One hundred days is an agonizingly long time for a family to go without answers about their missing loved one.
—Anna Schecter, CBS News, 12 May 2026
But the rollouts were agonizingly slow.
—Andrew R. Chow, Time, 6 May 2026
There’s something agonizingly beautiful in waiting—in longing, in steadfast desire.
—Literary Hub, 3 Apr. 2026
The Toronto Blue Jays were agonizingly, excruciatingly close to a World Series triumph.
—Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2026
Edgar Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 10 June 2026
Fletcher is a bruising back who could have gone to the NFL this past spring, but chose to stick around Coral Gables and take another crack at winning a national championship after the Canes fell agonizingly close in January.
—Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 3 June 2026
By online standards, though, the wait to bring charges—just a few days—was agonizingly long, and Dhillon complained on X about MAGA supporters heckling her to move faster.
—Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic, 21 May 2026
Instead, we’re treated to a series of agonizingly torpid scenes in which Nita and her co-workers are incepted by the power of Adam’s fiction, which comes to assume the force of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 14 May 2026
One hundred days is an agonizingly long time for a family to go without answers about their missing loved one.
—Anna Schecter, CBS News, 12 May 2026
But the rollouts were agonizingly slow.
—Andrew R. Chow, Time, 6 May 2026
There’s something agonizingly beautiful in waiting—in longing, in steadfast desire.
—Literary Hub, 3 Apr. 2026
The Toronto Blue Jays were agonizingly, excruciatingly close to a World Series triumph.
—Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for agonizingly
Adverb
-
After Adele and her mother had fought, bitterly, about her decision to keep the baby, and then more bitterly about her refusal to find Jamie in Florida and demand child support, Bromley invited her to live with him while things cooled down at home.—
Jonathan Franzen,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
-
During the Nullification Crisis of 1831–1833, partisan journalists had a major role in framing the issue and were bitterly opposed to one another, especially in South Carolina.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
26 May 2026
Adverb
-
Those faithful are making SpaceX not just the largest and most widely-lauded IPO ever, but sadly, far-and-away the most expensive.—
Shawn Tully,
Fortune,
6 June 2026
-
As a fashion writer with expensive taste and a budget that (sadly) doesn’t always agree, TJ Maxx’s Runway section has become my go-to source for scoring designer finds at prices that feel too good to be true.—
Julia Morlino,
Travel + Leisure,
6 June 2026
Adverb
-
The novel painfully exposes the ruthless mistreatment and exploitation of both racehorses and humans in this era and tracks the ripples of that trauma through time.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 June 2026
-
Audiences fell in love with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt’s pitch-perfect chemistry as Paul and Jamie Buchman, a married couple whose everyday misadventures felt hilariously — sometimes painfully — relatable.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
6 June 2026
Adverb
-
Tarun would tease her, and my mother would look sorrowfully toward Kavitha, as if the two of them now shared some womanly burden.—
Madhuri Vijay,
New Yorker,
16 Nov. 2025
Adverb
-
Many cities and school districts are trying hard to line up job opportunities for young people.—
Dianna Douglas,
NPR,
6 June 2026
-
With his gregarious nature and hard-drinking demeanor, Lobo is an intimidating extraterrestrial mercenary and bounty hunter, but his origin story is brutal, even by those standards.—
Jeff Spry,
Space.com,
6 June 2026
Adverb
-
So is the moment early in the film when Mary mournfully looks on as her long-ago home faces demolition to make room for a big, featureless residential complex.—
Peter Tonguette,
The Washington Examiner,
6 June 2026
-
Things are getting hot in Kayce's love life, even after the widower mournfully visits the East Camp memorial to his beloved wife, Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille).—
Bryan Alexander,
USA Today,
25 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Agonizingly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/agonizingly. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
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