woeful.

1. Bad enough to cause disappointment or dismay.

2. Expressing or marked by deep sadness.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• woeful performance
• woeful shortage

On the page

A woeful shortage of evidence undermined the report.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Comparative more woeful; superlative most woeful when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.