Synonyms for woe
- noun
- adjective
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Noun
1. Misery — great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness
misery, grief, unhappiness, sorrow, wretchedness, affliction, melancholy, distress, trouble, depression, anguish, agony, heartache, grievance, pain, curse, sadness, vexation, melancholia, bitterness, broken heart, wrong
2. Calamity — calamity, trouble
Other
Adjective
Definitions
- n. 1
Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness.
- n. 2
Calamity, trouble.
Forms
- Plural
- woes → miseries, griefs, unhappinesses, sorrows…
Example sentences
- grief There are five stages of grief. Stage one: denial.
- misery Tom blamed all his misery on planned obsolescence.
- sorrow To my sorrow, my father cannot attend the meeting.
- unhappiness This created a lot of unhappiness in Yanni's life.
- suffering I have a headache and I am suffering from a cough.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| woe | rising | |
| grief | rising | |
| misery | rising | |
| sorrow | rising | |
| unhappiness | rising | |
| suffering | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- pain1
- 5 letters
- wrong1, grief1, curse1, agony3
- 6 letters
- misery3, sorrow2, woeful2
- 7 letters
- trouble2, sadness2, anguish2
- 8 letters
- disaster3, distress2, calamity4, vexation
- 9 letters
- suffering3, miserable4, adversity4, heartache2, grievance2
- 10 letters
- depression3, bitterness3, melancholy4, affliction3, woefulness
- 11 letters
- catastrophe4, unhappiness4, melancholia
- 12 letters
- wretchedness
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (agony3 = 3 syllables).