awfuladjective
uk/ˈɔː.fəl/us/ˈɑː.fəl/awful adjective (BAD)
A2 extremely bad or unpleasant:
He suffered awful injuries in the crash.
We had awful weather.
She has an awful boss.
What an awful thing to say!
Would life be so awful without a car?
The food was awful.
She'd been ill and she looked awful.
More examples
- If the party is awful, we can always leave .
- The hotel was awful! To begin with, our room was far too small.
- The awful spectre of civil war looms over the country.
- It's a good job they didn't go camping last weekend - the weather was awful.
- They live downwind of a pig-farm and sometimes the smell is awful.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Not of good quality
- a miserable, poor, etc. excuse for sth idiom
- apology
- atrocious
- awfully
- badly
- be an apology for sth idiom
- clunky
- come/be a poor second, third, etc. idiom
- downscale
- inadequacy
- inadequate
- motley
- mouldy
- not set the world on fire idiom
- tacky
- unappetizing
- unattractive
- unimpressed
- weak sauce
- worst
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Serious and unpleasant
awful adjective (VERY GREAT)
B2 [ before noun ] very great:
I don't know an awful lot (= very much) about art, but I'm learning.
Fortunately it won't make an awful lot of difference if I don't pass the test.
It was an awful risk to take.
More examples
- There's an awful lot of smut on television these days.
- There's an awful lot of work to be done.
- It's an awful bore cooking a meal every night.
- It takes an awful long time to travel across the city on public transport.
- I'm feeling an awful lot better, thanks.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Linguistics: very & extreme
- abject
- badly
- beyond
- classic
- classical
- deadly
- devastating
- drop dead! idiom
- eminently
- esp
- especially
- heartily
- impossibly
- perfect
- sheer
- specially
- supremely
- thoroughly
- whole
- wide
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awfulness
noun [ U ] uk/ˈɔː.fəl.nəs/us/ˈɑː.fəl.nəs/
You can't appreciate the true/sheer awfulness of war until you've actually experienced it.