wailfully

adverb

as in sadly
with feelings of bitterness or grief the lost child wailfully kept asking for his mother

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for wailfully
  1. sadly
  2. bitterly
  3. sorrowfully
  4. painfully
  5. mournfully
  6. hard
Adverb
  • The expansion of the College Football Playoff to 24 teams in 2027 sadly means the end of conference championship games.
    — Matt Murschel, The Orlando Sentinel, 10 Nov. 2026
  • My children were never able to have a close relationship with this cousin, sadly.
    — R. Eric Thomas, Chicago Tribune, 10 Nov. 2026
Definition of sadly
Adverb
  • Landowners and business owners in the Big Bend region, environmentalists and others who’ve opposed the construction project were bitterly disappointed with the court’s decision.
    — Rebecca Santana, Chicago Tribune, 9 Nov. 2026
  • By the time September winds down, Hester is on a timetable all her own, out of synch with her family, detached from its cares, paradoxically and bitterly free.
    — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of bitterly
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
Definition of sorrowfully
Adverb
  • One problem is that two of the main suspects are too painfully obvious to be guilty, while the real culprit is easy to guess, well before Charlie turns up to provide answers.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 13 Nov. 2026
  • While the revolving timelines are certainly intriguing, the bloated cast, utterly confusing storylines and clumsy dialogue make for a painfully puzzling watch.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 13 Nov. 2026
Definition of painfully
Adverb
  • Fra Fee, as Joe, has a slightly harder task, since his role is almost entirely reactive; while Ethan bangs on mournfully about, effectively, the dangers of shagging your brother’s wife — well, who would have thought?
    — Damon Wise, Deadline, 13 Sep. 2026
  • Mayfield watched mournfully in his kitchen while the rest of the family sat in the living room with the big screen next to a Christmas tree.
    — John Romano, The Orlando Sentinel, 19 July 2026
Definition of mournfully
Adverb
  • Allowing political control over grantmaking to become more deeply entrenched would make recovery considerably harder.
    — Carole LaBonne, Washington Post, 8 Nov. 2026
  • Just by chance, a guy who does what he is coached to do, continues to work really, really hard and do the right things, the ball somehow finds him.
    — Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 8 Nov. 2026
Definition of hard
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.

Browse Nearby Words

wail (for)
wailfully
wailing
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Cite this Entry

“Wailfully.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wailfully. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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