Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

woeful

/ˈwəʊfəl/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.69 in modern English

Syllables: woe-ful
IPA: /ˈwəʊfəl/

12

Scrabble Score

6

Letters

2

Syllables

6

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

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

adj

Bringing calamity, distress, or affliction.

adj

Lamentable, deplorable.

adj

Wretched; paltry; poor.

Example Sentences

"How many woeful widows left to bow / To sad disgrace!"
"a woeful event"
"a woeful lack of restraint"
"Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy: This wide and universal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene Wherein we play in."
"What woful stuff this madrigal would be / In some starv'd hackney sonneteer or me!"

Etymology

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

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: woful
Suffix: woe

Inflected Forms

woefuller (comparative) woefullest (superlative) woful (alternative, obsolete) wofull (alternative, obsolete)

Derived Forms

woefully woefulness

Synonyms

miserable woe atrabiliary atrabilious blitheless dispirited blue bummed out chapfallen cheerless chopfallen crestfallen

Questions

How do you pronounce woeful?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈwəʊfəl/.
What does woeful mean?: Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity.
Where does woeful come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce woeful

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “woeful”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈwəʊfəl/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “woeful”.
Repeat and practice — Say “woeful” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.