sorely

adverb

ˈsȯr-lē How to pronounce sorely (audio)
Definition of sorelynext
1
as in bitterly
with feelings of bitterness or grief our company president, who is retiring at the end of the year, will be sorely missed

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in terribly
to a great degree completed some sorely needed repairs to the boat

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 sorely Vision may provide half the title, yet actual vision is the one thing this series sorely needs. — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 12 Oct. 2026 And if there is one thing sorely missing from the contemporary, which is to say post-Funny Face, crop of films focused on the fashion industry, then that one thing is joy. — Charles Gandee, Vogue, 27 Sep. 2026 Among the other additions that arrived as part of the 2025 refresh was a rear windshield wiper, which was sorely needed at launch. — Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 17 Sep. 2026 Barcenas’ production has been sorely needed on a squad that lost Dudinha to a knee injury during the June international break and has seen underperformance from Ludmila. — Karan Lodha, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for sorely
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sorely
  1. bitterly
  2. terribly
  3. sadly
  4. extremely
  5. sorrowfully
  6. severely
  7. painfully
  8. desperately
Adverb
  • The race is widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's nearly unbroken 17-year rule, which had left Israelis bitterly divided on a host of issues even before the deadliest attack in the country's history.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 28 Oct. 2026
  • The race was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s nearly unbroken 17-year rule, which had left Israelis bitterly divided on a host of issues even before the deadliest attack in the country’s history.
    — Tia Goldenberg, Chicago Tribune, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of bitterly
Adverb
  • That’s not terribly surprising given the two teams have clashed multiple times over the past 25 years of Xbox.
    — Tom Warren, The Verge, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Conservation can go terribly wrong if local communities aren’t consulted during planning.
    — David Ginsburg, The Conversation, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of terribly
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
  • Today, however, plague is curable and extremely unlikely to blow up into a new pandemic, experts say.
    — Faye Flam, Scientific American, 27 Oct. 2026
  • Nowhere was his balancing act viewed more extremely than with Ukraine.
    — Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of extremely
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
  • Fetal personhood would also likely eliminate, or at a minimum severely restrict, people who seek to start a family using surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.
    — Jim Defede, Miami Herald, 26 Oct. 2026
  • Torosian had told the prosecutor’s office that an undernourished, severely disabled girl who was receiving treatment at BioMed was subsisting entirely on spinach—on Kotthaus’s orders.
    — D. T. Max, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026
Definition of severely
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
  • Cohen insists the joke was always on Ali G, not the Black culture the character was so desperately trying to emulate.
    — Maxwell Adler, Vanity Fair, 27 Oct. 2026
  • Fielder played up a version of himself on the show, acting as a dumbly ambitious business school graduate, socially inept and desperately seeking connection.
    — Zoe Sottile, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of desperately

Browse Nearby Words

soreheads
sorely
soreness
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Cite this Entry

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

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