as in bitterly
with feelings of bitterness or grief
painfully she recounted the difficult relationship she had with her mother
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Recent Examples of painfully
The effect of Gaza on these particular swing voters lingers painfully in the thoughts of Harris’s most ardent supporters.
—
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Vanity Fair, 15 June 2026
Data, Not Models, Is The Bottleneck Companies that invested (sometimes painfully) in clean, governed and accessible data two or three years ago are seeing that investment pay compounding dividends today.
—Irfan Khan, Forbes.com, 12 June 2026
That trait becomes painfully clear when talk turns to the musical Brothers he’s lost in the last decade.
—David Browne, Rolling Stone, 12 June 2026
Tuesday night’s theme was painfully redundant for the Giants (27-41).
—Cam Inman, Mercury News, 10 June 2026
These extensive slow areas continue to exist on the western portion of the Blue Line to this day, painfully extending everyone’s commute.
—Chicago Tribune, 9 June 2026
The novel painfully exposes the ruthless mistreatment and exploitation of both racehorses and humans in this era and tracks the ripples of that trauma through time.
—Literary Hub, 9 June 2026
Audiences fell in love with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt’s pitch-perfect chemistry as Paul and Jamie Buchman, a married couple whose everyday misadventures felt hilariously — sometimes painfully — relatable.
—Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 6 June 2026
The Georgia film and TV business remains painfully subdued as summer nears.
—Rodney Ho, AJC.com, 3 June 2026
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Vanity Fair, 15 June 2026
Data, Not Models, Is The Bottleneck Companies that invested (sometimes painfully) in clean, governed and accessible data two or three years ago are seeing that investment pay compounding dividends today.
—Irfan Khan, Forbes.com, 12 June 2026
That trait becomes painfully clear when talk turns to the musical Brothers he’s lost in the last decade.
—David Browne, Rolling Stone, 12 June 2026
Tuesday night’s theme was painfully redundant for the Giants (27-41).
—Cam Inman, Mercury News, 10 June 2026
These extensive slow areas continue to exist on the western portion of the Blue Line to this day, painfully extending everyone’s commute.
—Chicago Tribune, 9 June 2026
The novel painfully exposes the ruthless mistreatment and exploitation of both racehorses and humans in this era and tracks the ripples of that trauma through time.
—Literary Hub, 9 June 2026
Audiences fell in love with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt’s pitch-perfect chemistry as Paul and Jamie Buchman, a married couple whose everyday misadventures felt hilariously — sometimes painfully — relatable.
—Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 6 June 2026
The Georgia film and TV business remains painfully subdued as summer nears.
—Rodney Ho, AJC.com, 3 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for painfully
Adverb
-
That leaves the volatile Joanne feeling shut out and bitterly resentful.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
16 June 2026
-
The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, desperate to connect with the grandeur of antiquity and left bitterly disappointed by his visit to Rome, eventually arrived in this once-vibrant center of the extended Greek empire.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 June 2026
Adverb
-
But sadly, this effort is being affected in a negative manner by neighboring counties.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
11 June 2026
-
An Indianapolis woman reported missing earlier this year along with her seven children has sadly been found dead in Mexico, though her kids are safe, her family told IndyStar.—
Joe Mutascio,
IndyStar,
10 June 2026
Adverb
-
Tarun would tease her, and my mother would look sorrowfully toward Kavitha, as if the two of them now shared some womanly burden.—
Madhuri Vijay,
New Yorker,
16 Nov. 2025
Adverb
-
The United States often feels more fractured than fraternal, a search for commonality hard to find in a land of boundaries drawn harder each day.—
Dana O’Neil,
CNN Money,
13 June 2026
-
Condos have been hit hard by rising costs associated with ownership, such as HOA dues and homeowners insurance.—
Andrea Riquier,
USA Today,
13 June 2026
Adverb
-
So is the moment early in the film when Mary mournfully looks on as her long-ago home faces demolition to make room for a big, featureless residential complex.—
Peter Tonguette,
The Washington Examiner,
6 June 2026
-
Things are getting hot in Kayce's love life, even after the widower mournfully visits the East Camp memorial to his beloved wife, Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille).—
Bryan Alexander,
USA Today,
25 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Painfully.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/painfully. Accessed 20 Jun. 2026.
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