awful

/ˈɔːfl/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈɔːfl/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈȯ-fəl/ (ame, mw)

awful — adjective

1. so unpleasant, low in quality, or upsetting that it makes you feel uncomfortable

1.形容詞A2
釋義

so unpleasant, low in quality, or upsetting that it makes you feel uncomfortable, disappointed, or even slightly sick — for example, a meal that tastes spoiled, a film no one enjoyed, or news of someone's accident.

例句

The soup tasted awful, so Dimitri pushed his bowl away after one spoonful.

linking verb pattern: taste/smell/look + awful

Ines had an awful headache and went to bed before dinner.

modifier of physical symptoms: awful + pain/headache/cold

同義詞
  • terrible

    near-identical scope and register

  • dreadful

    slightly more formal, common in British English

  • horrible

    stronger emotional reaction, often physical disgust

  • lousy

    informal; mostly North American

反義詞
  • wonderful

    expresses strong positive judgement

  • lovely

    milder positive, more British

用法筆記

Common as a predicative adjective after sense verbs (look, taste, smell, sound, feel). Distinguish from sense 2: this sense gives a negative judgement; sense 2 only intensifies the noun's amount.

常見錯誤

❌I feel awfully about it.
✅I feel awful about it.
💡after a linking verb you need the adjective, not the adverb.

2. placed before a noun to stress how very large the amount, number, or degree feel

2.形容詞B2
釋義

placed before a noun to stress how very large the amount, number, or degree feels to the speaker — for example, an awful lot of money, an awful amount of sugar, or an awful number of mistakes.

例句

Hana has spent an awful lot of money on his new mountain bike.

fixed phrase: an awful lot of + uncountable/plural noun

There were an awful lot of tourists at the temple this weekend.

agreement with plural noun after 'lot of'

同義詞
  • huge

    neutral register, focuses on physical or numerical size

  • tremendous

    more positive overtone

  • enormous

    emphasises scale rather than excess

反義詞
  • tiny

    physical or quantitative smallness

  • minimal

    more formal, suggests barely any

文法句型

an awful lot of + noun

用法筆記

Almost always attributive (placed before the noun) and very often inside the chunk 'an awful lot of'. Unlike sense 1, it carries no negative judgement on its own — 'an awful lot of friends' simply means 'many friends'.

常見錯誤

❌The crowd was awful big.
✅The crowd was awfully big.' / 'It was an awful big crowd.
💡to modify another adjective, use the adverb 'awfully', or keep 'awful' before the noun.

3. filling someone with deep wonder and a kind of fear because of how mighty, sacre

3.形容詞C2
釋義

filling someone with deep wonder and a kind of fear because of how mighty, sacred, or vast the thing seems — used in older or literary writing about gods, mountains, storms, and royal power.

例句

The poet describes a god whose awful gaze silences every mortal in the hall.

literary register; before noun referring to divine power

From the cliff edge the climbers watched the awful beauty of the storm rolling in.

collocation: awful beauty / awful majesty

同義詞
反義詞
  • trivial

    lacking importance or grandeur

用法筆記

Archaic or literary only. In modern conversation 'awful' will be heard as sense 1, so this sense is best replaced by 'awe-inspiring' or 'awesome' unless you are writing in a poetic or historical register.

常見錯誤

❌The Grand Canyon is awful.' (intending 'magnificent').
✅The Grand Canyon is awe-inspiring.
💡modern listeners hear 'awful' as 'very bad', so use 'awe-inspiring' instead.

awful — adverb