as in sadly
with feelings of bitterness or grief
the lost child wailfully kept asking for his mother
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for wailfully
Adverb
-
David Smith, one of the former owners, reports that despite its wild popularity, the original cake recipe sadly got lost.—
Nancy Vienneau,
Southern Living,
17 May 2026 -
Hüller is having a hell of a year, winning the Silver Bear for her role as a woman passing herself off as a male soldier to claim an estate in Rose, and playing the wry, sadly pragmatic head of the international task force in Project Hail Mary, one of the biggest hits of the year.—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
15 May 2026
Adverb
-
But Starmer has been reluctant to reopen a debate that bitterly divided the country.—
Jill Lawless,
Fortune,
11 May 2026
-
Several thousand navvies worked on the railway, living in makeshift camps, and many died in accidents, or from exposure and disease in the bitterly cold winters.—
The Week UK,
TheWeek,
3 May 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
-
By now, the playbook is painfully predictable.—
Bobby Burack OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
18 May 2026
-
The 29-year-old influencer, best known as Corporate Natalie, has built an audience of more than 2 million followers by making corporate culture feel funny, relatable and painfully accurate.—
Tereza Shkurtaj,
PEOPLE,
17 May 2026
Adverb
-
For their part, Democratic leaders spoke mournfully of limits, of energy shortages, of national decline, of a crisis of confidence itself.—
Rosa Lyster,
Harpers Magazine,
30 Dec. 2025
-
Based on the Dylan Thomas prose poem of the same name, published in 1952, the film lovingly and mournfully depicts the boyhood Christmastime of an old Welshman, tenderly and a tad mischievously embodied by Elliott.—
Sheldon Pearce,
New Yorker,
21 Nov. 2025
Adverb
-
The right idea should expand your world without making your life harder to manage.—
Tarot.com,
Chicago Tribune,
17 May 2026
-
Being shut out of public spaces and opportunities makes reintegration harder, not easier.—
Shianne LeClaire,
Hartford Courant,
17 May 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Wailfully.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wailfully. Accessed 19 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
