awful.
Very bad.
Meaning & usage
Very bad.
The smell of my socks is awful.
We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.
Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
I have learnt an awful amount today.
Causing fear or horror; appalling, terrible.
Awe-inspiring; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
Struck or filled with awe or reverence.
Terror-stricken.
Prone to a particular temptation.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, aȝefull, equivalent to awe + -ful. Compare Old English eġeful, eġefull (“terrifying; awful”). The “very bad” sense is a pejorative semantic shift from the original sense of “awe-inspiring”.
Awfully; dreadfully; terribly.
Very, extremely.
That's an awful big house.
She seemed awful nice when I met her yesterday.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, aȝefull, equivalent to awe + -ful. Compare Old English eġeful, eġefull (“terrifying; awful”). The “very bad” sense is a pejorative semantic shift from the original sense of “awe-inspiring”.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.