How to Use awful in a Sentence

awful

adjective
Definition of awfulnext
Synonyms for awfulnext
  • They heard the most awful sounds.
  • That's an awful thing to say.
  • The mountains have an awful majesty.
  • That joke is just awful.
  • Who painted the house that awful color?
  • He has some awful disease.
  • Awful things began to happen.
  • And all the awful stuff stays on that to the other side.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 4 Oct. 2023
  • The fighting would hark back to the awful trench warfare of the First World War.
    — Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2023
  • And the world, while scary and sometimes awful, is still here.
    — oregonlive, 5 Apr. 2023
  • The Gophers’ awful shooting in the first half put them down 10 points at the break.
    — Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 24 Jan. 2024
  • The razor burns are awful and the little knicks and cuts are painful.
    — Mia Meltzer, Rolling Stone, 11 Dec. 2023
  • The thump of a bird hitting a window is an awful sound.
    — Rita Pelczar, Better Homes & Gardens, 12 Jan. 2024
  • When Mahomes took a seat on the bench, the body language was awful.
    — Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY, 13 Feb. 2023
  • The first decision was to call me up and wake me up and tell me this awful news.
    — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 16 May 2023
  • But Boeing’s awful start to 2024 is about much more than its stock price.
    — David Goldman, CNN, 12 Mar. 2024
  • Though, of course, from an audience point of view, that’d be awful if no one were the main host.
    — Vulture, 19 July 2023
  • And the pursuit of trying to win somebody over is so awful.
    — Charles Trepany, USA TODAY, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Both sides did awful things, which is what happens in wars.
    — Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times, 27 Nov. 2023
  • In the case of these awful AI images, Microsoft appears to lay much of the blame on the users who make them.
    — Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post, 28 Dec. 2023
  • But something awful’s brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.
    — Sarah Yang, Sunset Magazine, 23 Oct. 2023
  • The whole production may be tacky, but the plot line is simply awful.
    — Merrie Monteagudo, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Mar. 2023
  • Because losing would have been awful, for her and for the country.
    — Michael Tomasky, The New Republic, 9 May 2023
  • For many, the shock of the Kamloops news wasn't the discovery so much as the sense of awful validation.
    — Rowan Moore Gerety, WIRED, 13 July 2023
  • Fraley, who’s in the middle of an awful slump, got a good bounce off the bat and snuck a seeing-eye single to left field.
    — Charlie Goldsmith, The Enquirer, 26 Apr. 2023
  • So, there is some hope that once whole, the Blazers could at least turn around the defense, which has been awful the past few weeks.
    — oregonlive, 14 Feb. 2023
  • The night gets worse when Steven hears the awful diss album Taylor’s ex-boyfriend Milo made about him.
    — Erica Gonzales, ELLE, 18 Aug. 2023
  • The list of awful and dangerous things Musk has said, or encouraged, goes on and on and on...
    — Mike Freeman, USA TODAY, 28 July 2023
  • The First Amendment gives everyone leeway to say many crazy, awful, violent things but not to do most of them.
    — Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, 2 Apr. 2024
  • There are plenty of reasons to savor the original movie, most of them having to do with the casting, some of it campy and awful in a truly wonderful way, some just plain spectacular.
    — Brian Lowry, CNN, 27 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'awful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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