badly

adverb

ˈbad-lē How to pronounce badly (audio)
Definition of badlynext
1
as in poorly
in an unsatisfactory way I'm afraid you performed quite badly in our last rehearsal

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in terribly
to a great degree blood donors are badly needed this time of year

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of badly One with the world To find out which parts of the brain were doing the work, the team replaced one network’s psilocybin activity with its sober version and checked how badly the classifier degraded. — Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 10 Oct. 2026 Another was beaten badly enough to necessitate a long hospital stay and had a gun stuck in his mouth. — Philip Marcelo, Los Angeles Times, 8 Oct. 2026 The extraordinary female characters at the heart of the show will be pushed to extremes, behave deliciously badly and have a whole lot of fun along the way. — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 6 Oct. 2026 But few could have anticipated just how badly the film would bomb. — Brent Lang, IndieWire, 4 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for badly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for badly
  1. poorly
  2. terribly
  3. bad
  4. extremely
  5. very
  6. incredibly
  7. too
  8. severely
Adverb
  • Trump administration officials and allies are starting to debate who will shoulder the blame if Republicans perform poorly in November.
    — Shelby Talcott, semafor.com, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Head coach Michael Carrick could also lose his job if the team continues to perform poorly.
    — Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of poorly
Adverb
  • Another issue is that AI detectors are still not terribly reliable, which Vara addresses in her piece, citing a number of studies to bolster the credentials of Pangram.
    — James Folta, Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Probably nothing too terribly bad, especially since Denver has done it without much offensive consistency.
    — Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of terribly
Adverb
  • Another would be to coat your thumbs with a bad-tasting substance.
    — Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 30 July 2026
  • Of course, Hole himself isn’t averse to breaking bad, either.
    — Jon O'Brien, IndieWire, 23 Mar. 2026
Definition of bad
Adverb
  • Some wondered whether Schrödinger’s equation might be an approximation that works extremely well at the microscopic scale but breaks down at the macroscopic scale, which would mean the measurement postulate of the Copenhagen interpretation is right.
    — Philipp Strasberg, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
  • In the meantime, no one should refrain from using sunscreen, which is extremely well-proven to cause cancer.
    — Tracy Middleton, Allure, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of extremely
Adverb
  • One of the other things that Claude noticed was that these array of associated reverse transcriptases seem to be isolated to jumbo phages, which have very large genomes for bacteriophage.
    — Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 14 Oct. 2026
  • There’s very few cases where a fan actually gets to stand beside the man and add onto the man’s legacy.
    — Christine Imarenezor, VIBE.com, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of very
Adverb
  • While these issues can be addressed, the costs can be incredibly high, and under Florida law, developers are only on the hook for anything identified within the first seven years after a building is handed over to the homeowners association.
    — Denise Hruby, Miami Herald, 19 Oct. 2026
  • The pre-selection debates about three- or four-loss SEC squads and some team no one actually watches will prove incredibly tiresome, too.
    — Tyler Estep, AJC.com, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of incredibly
Adverb
  • There were some surprises in the rankings, too, with the Fendi Spy bag seeing a 127 percent spike in average resale value amid this year’s Y2K revival.
    — Samantha Conti, Footwear News, 14 Oct. 2026
  • But while fans wait to see what happens, Davies, despite no longer being involved in the show, assured that a new series was definitely happening and there wouldn’t be too long to wait.
    — Alex Ritman, Variety, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of too
Adverb
  • Many of the children's bodies were severely decomposed, with only 26 able to be identified, and investigations into the other deaths are ongoing.
    — Jefferson Kahinju Reuters, Arkansas Online, 20 Oct. 2026
  • At least one case of congenital measles led to a death; the first death reported in the current outbreak was in a newborn baby boy, who died immediately after birth while his mother was severely ill with measles.
    — Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of severely

Browse Nearby Words

badlands
badly
bad-mouth
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Cite this Entry

“Badly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/badly. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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