Awful

How to spell awful

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce awful

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does awful mean?

1. adjectiveExtremely bad, unpleasant, or of poor quality.
2. adverbTo a great degree; very (used informally to intensify).

Awful in a sentence

• adjective

  The traffic on the motorway was awful this morning.

• adverb

  It was awful kind of him to drive us to the airport.

• adjective

  She felt awful after eating the undercooked meal.

• adverb

  The queue moved awful slowly during the lunch rush.

Where does awful come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word awful comes straight from native English roots, built from awe and the suffix -ful, which literally meant 'full of'. The word awe itself descends from Old English ege, meaning 'terror' or 'dread', reinforced by the Old Norse agi, which carried a similar sense of fright. In its earliest use, awful meant 'inspiring dread or profound reverence', so it described something so vast or holy that it filled the onlooker with fear, as when older texts speak of the awful majesty of God. Over the following centuries the word weakened in tone, drifting from 'awe-inspiring' to simply 'very bad' or 'unpleasant' in everyday speech. The modern spelling drops the final e of awe before -ful, which is the small trap that catches writers who expect to see 'aweful'.

How the word is built

• awe (dread, reverence)
• -ful (full of)