adj. 1
Awe-inspiring; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
adj. 2
Very bad.
The smell of my socks is awful.
adv. 1
Awfully; dreadfully; terribly.

Related words

Word family: awfulize awfully awfulness
Other spellings: awe-ful awe-full

From weakest to strongest

From the opposite of awful, on the left, to its strongest synonyms, on the right.

Choose the right word

Awful, Alarming or Terrible?

Awful should not be used of things which are merely disagreeable or annoying, nor of all that are alarming and terrible, but only of such as bring a solemn awe upon the soul, as in the presence of a superior power; as, the awful hush before the battle.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

terrible Terrible shooting broke out the night before last.
horrific Uncover the horrific truth of this shocking story.
horrendous Algeria is recovering from a horrendous experience.
horrid The ivy is good because it obscures those horrid cables.
nasty The child had a nasty cough because he had a cold.
eternal The eternal flame of love burned only half a year.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
awful		rising
terrible		rising
horrific		rising
horrendous		rising
horrid		rising
nasty		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: bad¹
4 letters: ugly², awed¹, gurt
5 letters: great¹, grand¹, noble², nasty², dread¹, lousy²
6 letters: august², solemn², horrid², gnarly²
7 letters: amazing³, awesome², painful², eternal³, fearful², awfully², heinous², stately², abysmal³
8 letters: terrible³, horrible³, shocking², glorious³, terrific³, terribly³, horrific³, heavenly³, dreadful², imposing³, majestic³
9 letters: appalling³, atrocious³, frightful²
10 letters: impressive³, tremendous³, horrifying⁴, horrendous³, abominable⁵
11 letters: frightening³, frightfully³

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (ugly² = 2 syllables).