Standard Lemma guide

woeful

adj · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈwəʊfəl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -əʊfəl
  • CMU ARPABET: W OW1 F AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: miserable, woe, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, crestfallen, cut up, damp, dejected, depressed, despondent, disgruntled, disconsolate, disheartened, dismal, doleful, dolesome, down, down in the dumps, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, downsome, dull, elegiac, elegious, forlorn, gloomy, glum, grief-stricken, grieving, heavy-hearted, heartsore, heartsick, inconsolable, infelicitous, jawfallen, joyless, lachrymose, lamentful, low, low-spirited, lugubrious, lumpish, melancholic, melancholy, moody, mopey, morose, mournful, passionate, plaintive, Plutonian, Plutonic, querulous, ruthful, sad, saddened, saturnine, shattered, solemn, sombre, sorrowful, sorrow-ridden, sorrowsome, spiritless, sullen, threnetic, threnetical, triste, tristful, uncheerful, uncheery, unconsolable, unhappy, unlively, wistful, woebegone, woeful, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Bringing calamity, distress, or affliction.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • a woeful event
  • a woeful lack of restraint

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: calamitous, disastrous, apocalyptic, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, deadly, debacular, destructive, devastating, disadventurous, eradicative, extirpative, fatal, harmful, lethal, pernicious, ruinous, woeful

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Lamentable, deplorable.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: rueful, woebegone, atrabiliary, atrabilious, deplorable, depressing, distressing, grievous, heartbreaking, heartrending, miserable, lamentable, lachrymable, mournful, regrettable, sad, saddening, sorrowful, tragic, unhappy, upsetting, woeful

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Wretched; paltry; poor.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: inferior, shoddy, abject, filthy, base, beggarly, blameworthy, carrion, cheap, choical, contemptible, cringing, damnable, dedecorous, degraded, deplorable, deridable, derisible, despicable, despisable, dirty, discreditable, disdainable, disgraceful, dishonorable, disreputable, execrable, groveling, hylic, hylical, ignoble, ignominious, inglorious, lame, laughable, loathsome, lousy, low, ludicrous, mean, mean-spirited, miserable, obscene, outrageous, paltry, pathetic, pissass, pitiable, pitiful, plebeian, punk, putrid, reprehensible, reprehensive, reptile, reptilian, reptitious, ridiculous, risible, roynish, scabbed, scald, scornworthy, scummy, scurvy, shabby, shameful, shit, sleazy, slavish, slimy, sordid, sorry, trashy, ugly, uncommendable, uncool, unmentionable, unwashed, unsophisticated, unworthy, vile, vulgar, weak, worthless, wretched, ass, bad, below par, bottom-shelf, BTEC, bum, cheap and nasty, cheapshit, cheesy, chintzy, coffee-and, crap, crappo, crappy, craptastic, crapperific, craptabulous, craptacular, cruddy, crummy, dogwater, drecky, flimsy, fourth-rate, gash, garbage, god-awful, low-grade, low-quality, low-rent, made in China, mid, naughty, one-star, poor, poor man's, pound-shop, rinky-dink, ropy, rubbish, sad, schlocky, scrubby, second-rate, slazy, slight, slim, subpar, shite, shitty, substandard, ticky-tacky, tenth-rate, third-rate, tin-pot, trash, under par, woeful

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

affected by or full of grief or woe- George du Maurier

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • his sorrow...made him look...haggard and...woebegone

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: woebegone

Antonyms: none provided

6

adjective satellite

Meaning 6

of very poor quality or condition

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • deplorable housing conditions in the inner city
  • woeful treatment of the accused
  • woeful errors of judgment

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: deplorable, execrable, miserable, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

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