1
as in poorly
in an unsatisfactory way
I'm afraid you performed quite badly in our last rehearsal
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in terribly
to a great degree
blood donors are badly needed this time of year
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of badly
During last year’s Israel-Iran war, Hezbollah remained on the sidelines, badly weakened by its own war with Israel in 2024.
—
Jon Gambrell, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2026
How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?
—Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, 25 Jan. 2026
How many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?
—Rachel Wolf , Paul Mauro , Bill Melugin , Alexandra Koch , David Spunt, FOXNews.com, 24 Jan. 2026
Things go badly when their neighbor, Tommy, turns out to have sinister motives.
—Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 23 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for badly
Jon Gambrell, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2026
How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?
—Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, 25 Jan. 2026
How many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end?
—Rachel Wolf , Paul Mauro , Bill Melugin , Alexandra Koch , David Spunt, FOXNews.com, 24 Jan. 2026
Things go badly when their neighbor, Tommy, turns out to have sinister motives.
—Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 23 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for badly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for badly
Adverb
-
Under simulated flue gas conditions containing 15 percent CO₂, 8 percent oxygen, and 77 percent nitrogen, the new system continued to produce significant amounts of formic acid while other systems performed poorly.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
29 Jan. 2026
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The country’s hospitals are so poorly equipped that patients are asked to provide supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws.—
David Klepper,
Fortune,
29 Jan. 2026
Adverb
-
The problem being that Bungie has another game, Destiny 2, that players have invested in for a decade now, at Bungie is not being terribly forthcoming about what’s coming as of yet.—
Paul Tassi,
Forbes.com,
30 Jan. 2026
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Bart Layton made his feature debut in 2018 with American Animals, a great hybrid true-crime story that used doc techniques to tell the story of a supposedly victimless art heist that went terribly wrong.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
29 Jan. 2026
Adverb
-
The dialogue sometimes lapses from bad-funny to just bad.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
21 Jan. 2026
-
And it’s been replaced by the grim reality that this team is one bad-looking MRI away from downright irrelevance.—
Dieter Kurtenbach,
Mercury News,
27 Nov. 2025
Adverb
-
Where these winds coincide with heavy snow, blizzard conditions are possible, with near-zero visibility and extremely dangerous travel, particularly along the Outer Banks of North Carolina and into southeast Virginia.—
Briana Waxman,
CNN Money,
30 Jan. 2026
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Therefore, telling the story in graphic form on behalf of Ukrainians themselves, explaining the preconditions for Russia’s attempts to erase Ukraine as a sovereign country and Ukrainians as an ethnic group, became extremely relevant.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 Jan. 2026
Adverb
-
Tucked in among all of the many things that Pep Guardiola has got off his chest about referees over the past couple of weeks was a very small detail that might explain an awful lot.—
Sam Lee,
New York Times,
31 Jan. 2026
-
Yes, there's a very pretty swath of sand leading to the Atlantic Ocean, where lifeguards keep watch every day of the year.—
Beth Luberecki,
USA Today,
31 Jan. 2026
Adverb
-
That’s where going to space becomes incredibly effective.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
4 Feb. 2026
-
The silicone prosthetics were incredibly thin, which meant that putting a ring through them could rip them if they were accidentally tugged or pulled too hard.—
Sophia Panych,
Allure,
3 Feb. 2026
Adverb
-
Rihanna, too, has laid her claim to the pattern, having long been an animal print fanatic.—
Anna Cafolla,
Vogue,
29 Jan. 2026
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Around here, for too many immigrants, here lawfully or not, going to church has actually been risky for months.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 Jan. 2026
Adverb
-
It was severely dehydrated and sluggish.—
Lila Seidman,
Los Angeles Times,
1 Feb. 2026
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Longtime Milford residents Theresa Covaleski and Scott Digris said that Irene severely damaged their shoreline house on Lawrence Court.—
Maleena Muzio,
Hartford Courant,
31 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Badly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/badly. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
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