adjective
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expressing or characterized by sorrow
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bringing or causing woe
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pitiful; miserable
a woeful standard of work
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of woeful
A Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at woe, -ful
Explanation
Something woeful is full of sadness, like the woeful little boy who can't find the stuffed bunny he needs to fall asleep. Use the adjective woeful for people or things affected by misery or sorrow. A woeful expression on your face shows you're sad, and a woeful performance in the big kickball game means your team did so badly that you feel miserable about it. Woeful comes from woe, "great sorrow," and its source, the Old English interjection wa. This ancient woeful expression is still used in many languages today.
Vocabulary lists containing woeful
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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Novel Study: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Chapters 1–6
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The Door in the Wall
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In May, it criticised the "woeful" performance of successive governments in getting the UK ready for more extreme heat.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
Mr. Petro’s party has a plurality in Congress and Mr. de la Espriella will inherit woeful state finances.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
The Knicks were a pretty good team in a pretty bad conference, sitting in third place in the woeful East.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
The difference was clear in a woeful first set from Raducanu.
From BBC ● May 24, 2026
And there is nothing more woeful and soul-saddening than when they are parted.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
