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wretchedly

C2
adverb

Pronunciation

UK

  • /rˈɛtʃɪdli/

US

  • /ˈrɛtʃɪdli/

Description

If something goes wretchedly, it goes very badly or leaves someone feeling deeply unhappy. The word adds strong emotion. It does not mean just "a little bad." It suggests that something feels awful, painful, or sadly disappointing. You might say a trip went wretchedly wrong, that someone felt wretchedly alone, or that a room was wretchedly cold.

It is often used in stories and descriptive writing because it gives a strong sense of suffering or discomfort. Sometimes it describes a person's feelings, and sometimes it strengthens an adjective such as cold, lonely, or poor. In each case, it makes the situation sound much worse than usual.

Examples

  1. 1

    Poor sleep

    I slept wretchedly on the train and felt exhausted the next day.

  2. 2

    Severe poverty

    Even after years of work, many people in the village were still wretchedly poor.

  3. 3

    Software performance

    The new software performed wretchedly once real customers started using it.

  4. 4

    Loneliness

    After moving abroad, he felt wretchedly alone for the first few months.

See also

adverbin a very bad, poor, or inadequate way

Similar

Shades of meaning

Contrast

Used with (collocations)

  • perform wretchedly
  • wretchedly inadequate
  • wretchedly poor

Word family

Explore

  • poor performance
  • inadequacy

Forms and spellings

1 form open this card.

Main spelling

  • wretchedlyadverb