terribly

adverb

ter·​ri·​bly ˈter-ə-blē 

ˈte-rə-

1

: to an extreme degree : very : extremely

became terribly ill

had a terribly nice time

got terribly excited

I had tried a little radio before the war and hadn't been terribly impressed with it at the time.

—Walter Cronkite

He and Jimmy got into a quarrel about the girl's being fired, and it got terribly bitter.

—Virginia Foster Durr

2

: in a terrible way : very badly, poorly, or unpleasantly

behaving terribly

They were treated terribly.

This can be regarded as a somewhat progressive attitude because it is true that women were terribly abused in the Roman world.

—Norman F. Cantor

And then the next year I played terribly and finished close to last.

—Gene Littler

3

: very much

I miss you terribly.

Synonyms

• achingly
• almighty
• archly
• awful
• awfully
• badly
• beastly
• blisteringly
• bone
• colossally
• corking
• cracking
• damn
• damned
• dang
• deadly
• desperately
• eminently
• enormously
• especially
• ever
• exceedingly
• exceeding
• extra
• extremely
• fabulously
• fantastically
• far
• fiercely
• filthy
• frightfully
• full
• greatly
• heavily
• highly
• hugely
• immensely
• incredibly
• intensely
• jolly
• majorly
• mightily
• mighty
• monstrous [chiefly dialect]
• mortally
• most
• much
• particularly
• passing
• rattling
• real
• really
• right
• roaring
• roaringly
• seriously
• severely
• so
• sore
• sorely
• spanking
• specially
• stinking
• such
• super
• supremely
• surpassingly
• that
• thumping
• too
• unco
• uncommonly
• vastly
• very
• vitally
• way
• whacking
• wicked
• wildly

Examples of terribly in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

None of this is terribly alarming for markets at this point — at least not for long-term investors who can handle a bit of turmoil. —Jeff Sommer, New York Times, 19 Apr. 2024

Tempe leader: Arizona Coyotes’ 'terribly inept campaign' in his city sealed the team’s fate Want to stay up-to-date on Arizona elections? —Sasha Hupka, The Arizona Republic, 18 Apr. 2024

Rosemary's surgery went terribly wrong (even for a lobotomy, which is now a medically suspect and extremely rare procedure). —Greg Rosalsky, NPR, 16 Apr. 2024

Officials with Prime Health Care, Alvarado’s former owner, were not terribly forthcoming about holdups when the UCSD purchase was announced and finalized in late 2023, and Maysent declined to delve deeper into that relationship on the record last week. —Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Apr. 2024

This storied racer carries a high-end estimate of about $420,000, which doesn’t seem to be a terribly large sum for such a significant motorsport icon. —Robert Ross, Robb Report, 8 Apr. 2024

Related Articles Kurtenbach: The A’s treated their fans terribly. —Jason Mastrodonato, The Mercury News, 6 Apr. 2024

Take Care of Employees’ Needs First A pizza party might be received well by the employees of one company and terribly by another — the difference largely comes down to the underlying culture. —Jason Hennessey, Rolling Stone, 5 Apr. 2024

Tim’s insights, expertise and volunteer leadership have been key to our global expansion and he will be terribly missed by us all. —Carolyn Giardina, Variety, 31 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1