agonizingly

adverb

as in bitterly
with feelings of bitterness or grief agonizingly made the decision to have her beloved cat put to sleep

Synonyms & Similar Words

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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 agonizingly The three-peat is slowly, agonizingly having the life squeezed out of it by a collection of hardscrabble Midwesterners with no regard for stardom or status. — Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2026 Samjad keeps the twins’ superpowers under wraps for an agonizingly long time, until the sun goes down and their bodies are able to regenerate. — Damon Wise, Deadline, 12 Oct. 2026 But alas, eventually all involved have to get down to business and actually contend with the plot beats of Hoover’s story, which is when the movie careens off a cliff, plummeting past so-bad-it’s-good and crashing on the rocks of agonizingly dumb. — Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 30 Sep. 2026 Ireland agonizingly captures the everyday indignities and legal roadblocks that survivors may encounter. — Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 16 Sep. 2026 In the same way that the ball bounced off Darren Morris’ fingers and disappeared into the crowded Oregon bench, another chance to defeat a Power Four opponent slipped agonizingly through Boise State’s grasp on Saturday afternoon. — Idaho Statesman, 6 Sep. 2026 Likewise, the film rewards patience with an agonizingly tender culminating shot — a reminder that some things must change while others linger in the amber of childhood. — Beatrice Loayza, Variety, 24 Aug. 2026 While court documents show there have been settlement discussions in some of the cases, some plaintiffs’ attorneys say the pace has been agonizingly slow—or nonexistent. — Luke Cyphers, Sportico.com, 13 Aug. 2026 While court documents show there have been settlement discussions in some of the cases, some plaintiffs’ attorneys say the pace has been agonizingly slow — or nonexistent. — Luke Cyphers, Rolling Stone, 12 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for agonizingly
  1. bitterly
  2. sadly
  3. sorrowfully
  4. painfully
  5. hard
Adverb
  • Conservationists fought bitterly over whether trapping every bird should be considered rescue or surrender.
    — David Ginsburg, The Conversation, 20 Oct. 2026
  • And the fourth was about how Bush’s advisers fought bitterly and were split on economic policy.
    — Bob Woodward, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of bitterly
Adverb
  • Political and legal debates date back to ancient Rome and have been a key part of our nation, beginning with Lincoln-Douglas, yet experts say, sadly, are no longer perceived as necessary.
    — Jennifer McLogan, CBS News, 20 Oct. 2026
  • There is of course another way to hear ABBA songs sung live onstage, though sadly without Greek island backdrops or background singers wearing floppy swim fins.
    — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of sadly
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
Definition of sorrowfully
Adverb
  • For residents, the reservoir nonetheless remains a painfully visible symbol of the city’s shortcomings.
    — Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
  • But the editorial process was painfully slow, and the business model was doomed by the dot-com crash.
    — Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of painfully
Adverb
  • With nearly 60 murders per day, South Africa has one of the world's highest crime rates, and several of Cape Town's townships are among the areas hardest hit by violent crime.
    — Julie Bourdin, NPR, 25 Oct. 2026
  • Eisenkot believes Netanyahu has purposefully made that process harder.
    — Eric Cortellessa, Time, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of hard

Browse Nearby Words

agonizing
agonizingly
agony
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Cite this Entry

“Agonizingly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/agonizingly. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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