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 There’s been an agonizingly slow rate of reinvestment here. — Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 20 June 2026 One hundred days is an agonizingly long time for a family to go without answers about their missing loved one. — Anna Schecter, CBS News, 12 May 2026 But the rollouts were agonizingly slow. — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 6 May 2026 Mike Holloway had come agonizingly close before. — Edgar Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 10 June 2026 The other is the agonizingly good stunt coordination by Julian Spencer that makes men slide in the mud frantically trying to grab and snap each other’s fingers. — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 18 June 2026 Instead, we’re treated to a series of agonizingly torpid scenes in which Nita and her co-workers are incepted by the power of Adam’s fiction, which comes to assume the force of a self-fulfilling prophecy. — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 14 May 2026 By online standards, though, the wait to bring charges—just a few days—was agonizingly long, and Dhillon complained on X about MAGA supporters heckling her to move faster. — Quinta Jurecic, The Atlantic, 21 May 2026 Fletcher is a bruising back who could have gone to the NFL this past spring, but chose to stick around Coral Gables and take another crack at winning a national championship after the Canes fell agonizingly close in January. — Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 3 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for agonizingly
  1. bitterly
  2. sadly
  3. painfully
  4. sorrowfully
  5. hard
  6. mournfully
Adverb
  • With a goalkeeping howler and a red card, Marcelo Bielsa’s side self-imploded at the end of a bitterly disappointing tournament.
    — Tim Spiers, New York Times, 30 June 2026
  • And the organization’s internal splinter groups, the Soviet-leaning Weatherman Underground and the Maoist-leaning Progressive Labor faction fought each other bitterly.
    — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Time, 28 June 2026
Definition of bitterly
Adverb
  • To its sadly unusual credit, each Enola Holmes film has taken on a different social issue to address, albeit at times rather on the nose-edly.
    — Hannah Abraham, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026
  • The Prince of Wales sadly won’t be attending Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce‘s wedding Friday in New York City, but the heir to the British throne nonetheless made sure to offer some royal prestige to events.
    — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 3 July 2026
Definition of sadly
Adverb
  • Her life remains a poignant reminder that America’s promise of liberty was still painfully incomplete for many who believed in it most.
    — Robin Follman, Oc Register, 4 July 2026
  • But for too many agencies, turning that data into a complete, compliant police report is still painfully manual, time-consuming and prone to error.
    — Matthew Polega, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of painfully
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
  • Buying a first home has never been harder Are first-time home buyers a vanishing breed?
    — Kristin Scharkey, USA Today, 7 July 2026
  • So that’s kind of hard, because last year was a big year for, like, health-wise for my wife.
    — Deputy Entertainment, Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2026
Definition of hard
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
Definition of mournfully

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 7 Jul. 2026.

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