sadly
- 1Used to express that something is unfortunately the case; regrettably.
Sadly, the funding was withdrawn before the project could begin.
The negotiations, sadly, collapsed at the very last stage.
Similarunfortunately, regrettably, unhappily
Oppositefortunately, happily, luckily, thankfully
Note
Here the adverb comments on a whole statement rather than on how anything is done. It usually stands apart, often first and set off by a comma: Sadly, the two were never to meet again. Compare he said sadly, where the manner sense describes a tone of voice. Moved to the front, the same word becomes the speaker's regret. A set phrase like sadly mistaken leans toward the "badly" meaning.
- 2In a sorrowful manner; in a way that shows or expresses sadness.
The child waved sadly to her friends from the back of the car.
He spoke sadly of the home he had left behind.
Similarsorrowfully, mournfully, unhappily, wistfully, forlornly
Oppositehappily, cheerfully, joyfully
- 3In a manner that causes sadness; to a bad or regrettable degree.
Anyone who expected an easy victory was sadly mistaken.
The report was sadly deficient in hard evidence.
Similarbadly, woefully, sorely, seriously, lamentably
Note
An intensifier of trouble and shortfall. It pairs with words that already name something bad, such as lacking, deficient or plagued, and makes them worse. Thomas Keightley's The Fairy Mythology (1828) has the people of Ebeltoft "sadly plagued" by creatures raiding their pantries. A quick test: if badly fits in its place and nobody needs to feel sorrowful, this is the sense at work.
Less common meanings
- 4To a great and pressing degree, said of how much someone wants or needs something.
Similarbadly, sorely, desperately, greatly
Note
A dated intensive of wanting and needing. It measures how strongly a wish is felt, not how sad anyone is. In Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White (1859) a distressed woman says "I sadly want to quiet myself," meaning she urgently needs to. Readers today would hear the sorrowful meaning in that position, so present-day English uses badly or dearly instead: I badly want to rest.
- 5Deeply; completely; to the fullest extent.
Note
An obsolete sense of depth and completeness, and an easy one to misread in older prose. In Malory's Le Morte Darthur (1485), Sir Launcelot unarms in a pavilion and lays himself down in a bed. In a passage like that, the word describes how fully something happens, the way one sleeps soundly. Read it as soundly or thoroughly, because nothing in this sense is sorrowful.
Use it in a sentence
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Origin
From Middle English sadly, formed from sad plus the suffix -ly.