terribly

adverb

ter·​ri·​bly ˈter-ə-blē 

ˈte-rə-

1

: to an extreme degree : very : extremely

became terribly ill

had a terribly nice time

got terribly excited

I had tried a little radio before the war and hadn't been terribly impressed with it at the time.

—Walter Cronkite

He and Jimmy got into a quarrel about the girl's being fired, and it got terribly bitter.

—Virginia Foster Durr

2

: in a terrible way : very badly, poorly, or unpleasantly

behaving terribly

They were treated terribly.

This can be regarded as a somewhat progressive attitude because it is true that women were terribly abused in the Roman world.

—Norman F. Cantor

And then the next year I played terribly and finished close to last.

—Gene Littler

3

: very much

I miss you terribly.

Synonyms

• extremely
• very
• incredibly
• too
• highly
• badly
• so
• damned
• damn
• severely
• really
• desperately
• seriously
• far
• intensely
• greatly

Examples of terribly in a Sentence

I'm terribly sorry to bother you

Recent Examples on the Web

And then suddenly the frequency stopped, the world became terribly still. —Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2025

As winning goes, Ralphie VII doesn’t have a terribly high bar to clear. —Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 21 Sep. 2025

The fans, meanwhile, don’t get terribly loud even at full speed. —Mark Coppock, PC Magazine, 20 Sep. 2025

The two had remained friends since Edelman’s retirement in 2021, but weren’t terribly close. —Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 20 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for terribly

• unbearably