Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use awful in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, adverb

Awful means very bad. Example: “The smell of my socks is awful.”

Examples of awful by meaning

adjectiveVery bad.

  • The smell of my socks is awful.
  • We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.

adjectiveExceedingly great; usually applied intensively.

  • I have learnt an awful amount today.
  • I make an awful lot of food.2010 November 14, Barry Egan, “Nadine Coyle: Insatiable of Derry”, in Life (Sunday Independent), Dublin, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15, column 4

adjectiveProne to a particular temptation.

  • "She's awful for imagining things, Wilfred agreed with me."1945, James Hanley, Crilley, and Other Stories
  • Tommy was just an awful man for the paper - couldn't get enough of the stuff!2022, Lisa McGee, Derry Girls, season 3, episode 7

adverbAwfully; dreadfully; terribly.

  • The race was run, and the dog ran "awful".1933 January 21, The Sydney Sportsman, NSW, page 1

adverbVery, extremely.

  • That's an awful big house.
  • She seemed awful nice when I met her yesterday.
  • He was blubbering away something awful.

More sentences with awful

  • The drive this morning was awful due to snow and ice.From the entry drive
  • They showed episodes of some awful TV show on our flight.From the entry show
  • He has been noodling with that trumpet all afternoon, and every bit of it sounds awful.From the entry noodle
  • I can read and understand most texts in German, but my speaking is awful.From the entry speaking
  • No, I don't wanna go paragliding. Been there, done that. I found it awful.From the entry been there, done that
  • He wants to get out of there something awful, but he just doesn't have the money.From the entry something awful
  • What happened to that girl in the film was so awful – I was extremely moved.From the entry moved
  • The worst thing about my wife's pregnancy was her awful mood swings.From the entry mood swing
  • Person A: The Cleveland Browns are not doing too awful well this year.From the entry no kidding
  • You must have had the patience of a saint to sit through that awful film!From the entry patience of a saint
  • They're running away from that awful plan, but they were the ones who introduced it.From the entry run away from
  • This cold is awful. I can't stop hacking.From the entry hack
  • This milk has turned; it smells awful.From the entry turn
  • He got an awful land when the police arrived.From the entry land
  • The slums and the palace were in awful neighborhood.From the entry neighborhood
  • This recording sounds awful due to the distortion.From the entry distortion
  • The caterwauling from the catfight in the back yard was awful; I couldn't get to sleep until it was over.From the entry catfight
  • She sure has an awful glower on her face.From the entry glower
  • "Wow!" "Yeah, no, it was really awful!"From the entry no
  • What is that awful smell? P U!From the entry P U
  • This stock’s fundamentals are awful, but its technicals are great – it’s trending upward, so I rate it a short-term buy.From the entry technicals
  • He was awful to me when we were young, but I don't hold that against him. We were children then.From the entry hold against
  • That's an awful lot of work to take upon yourself.From the entry take upon oneself
  • That's an awful wingle of a road.From the entry wingle
  • Your awful "song" is making my ears sad.From the entry make someone's ears sad
  • As a veteran, the war film I watched yesterday hit too close to home, making me remember many awful things.From the entry hit too close to home
  • I would rather die than hear that awful song again.From the entry I would rather die
  • I felt awful, and I rashed up all over.From the entry rash up
  • She lived down to her reputation as an awful person.From the entry live down to
  • We groaned at his awful jokes.From the entry groan

Meaning of awful

  1. adjective Very bad.
  2. adjective Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
  3. adjective Causing fear or horror; appalling, terrible.

Full definition of awful

Questions about awful in a sentence

How do you use awful in a sentence?
Awful is used as an adjective and adverb. For example: “The smell of my socks is awful.”
What is a short sentence with awful?
“That's an awful big house.”
What does awful mean?
Awful means very bad.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: awful (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use awful in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/awful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.