woefully
adverb
woefully is spelled W-O-E-F-U-L-L-Y: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,974th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adverb, woefully means “In a woeful manner” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in woefully?
| Letters | 8: W-O-E-F-U-L-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 31,974th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is woefully?
Woefully appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,974th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce woefully?
Woefully has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-woefully.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of woefully
- more woefully comparative
- most woefully superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does woefully mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
In a woeful manner
to cry woefully
- 2
To an unfortunately great extent.
woefully inadequate
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does woefully come from?
From Middle English wofully, equivalent to woeful + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).