woeful

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woeful

/ˈwəʊfəl/

Rhymes with -əʊfəl

Where it comes from

From Middle English woful, waful, equivalent to woe + -ful. Compare Old English wālīċ (“woeful”), Old English tēonful (“woeful”).

adjective woefuller · woefullest · woful · wofull

Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity. How many woeful widows left to bow / To sad disgrace!
Similar: miserable, woe, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, crestfallen
Bringing calamity, distress, or affliction. a woeful event
Similar: calamitous, disastrous, apocalyptic, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, deadly, debacular, destructive, devastating, disadventurous, eradicative
Lamentable, deplorable. Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy: This wide and universal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene Wherein we play in.
Similar: rueful, woebegone, atrabiliary, atrabilious, deplorable, depressing, distressing, grievous, heartbreaking, heartrending, miserable, lamentable
Wretched; paltry; poor. What woful stuff this madrigal would be / In some starv'd hackney sonneteer or me!
Similar: inferior, shoddy, abject, filthy, base, beggarly, blameworthy, carrion, cheap, choical, contemptible, cringing

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MLA

"woeful." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/woeful. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

woeful. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/woeful

Chicago

"woeful." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/woeful.

BibTeX

@misc{woeful_2026,
  title = {woeful},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/woeful},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}