Awful means very bad or very unpleasant.
The traffic was awful this morning. It took an hour to get to school.
I had an awful cold last week.
You will also hear it in friendly phrases like an awful lot, which don't mean anything bad at all. More on that below.
Wait… AWE + FUL = AWFUL?
Look at how the word is built:
awe + -ful → awful
The ending -ful usually means full of: careful is full of care, hopeful is full of hope. So shouldn't awful mean full of awe, full of wonder and amazement?
Instead, today it's a word for bad food, bad weather and bad days. And its close relative awesome means amazing.
Same root, opposite directions. How did that happen? The answer starts with the word awe itself.
What Did "Awe" Mean?
Today awe is mostly a positive feeling: the wonder you feel looking at a huge waterfall or the night sky.
Hundreds of years ago, awe was much darker. It mainly meant fear, terror and dread: the feeling of standing in front of something far more powerful than you.
Over the centuries, another side of the feeling grew stronger: deep respect and wonder. Today's awe still keeps a small trace of the old fear. It's the feeling that something is so big or powerful that it almost scares you.
What Did "Awful" Mean?
Originally, awful described things that caused that old awe. An awful storm, an awful king or an awful sight was one that made people afraid, or filled them with deep respect.
So awful first meant something like awe-inspiring, in both a frightening and a respectful way. (A "full of awe" sense did exist for a while, but it was rare and has disappeared.)
Compare that with today:
- then: awful = terrifying, or worthy of deep respect
- now: awful = very bad, very unpleasant
So How Did It Become Negative?
There wasn't one big moment when it changed. It happened gradually, over centuries.
- Because awful often described frightening, dreadful things, the "bad" side of its meaning was always strong.
- Around 200 years ago, people began using it much more casually, for things that were simply very bad: an awful dinner, awful weather.
- The word lost its huge, serious power and became an everyday complaint.
Not everyone liked this at the time. Some writers complained that awful should only be used for truly awe-inspiring things. Sound familiar? People complain about literally in the same way today.
AWFUL vs AWESOME
Here's the signature OddLingo puzzle:
awe → awesome → usually positive
awe → awful → usually negative
How did two relatives end up on opposite sides?
Awesome also started with the powerful, sometimes frightening side of awe. But it only became an everyday casual word much later, in the 20th century. By then, awe itself had become mostly about wonder, so casual awesome leaned towards amazing. Awful, which had weakened much earlier while the fearful side was still strong, leaned towards terrible.
Today the difference is clear:
- The view from the mountain was awesome. It was amazing.
- The smell from the bin was awful. It was terrible.
A word's parts don't decide what it means today. People's use does.
Awful Doesn't Always Mean "Bad"
In informal English, awful and awfully can simply make something stronger, like very:
- an awful lot = a very large amount. We walked an awful lot on holiday.
- awfully = very. That's awfully kind of you.
- The test was awfully difficult.
Here the "badness" is gone. Awfully kind is a compliment!
Word Family
- awe (noun): wonder mixed with a little fear. We stared at the volcano in awe.
- awestruck (adjective): filled with awe. The children were awestruck by the rocket launch.
- awesome (adjective): amazing, or informally just great.
- awful (adjective): very bad, or informally a word for emphasis (an awful lot).
- awfully (adverb): very, as in awfully tired or awfully nice.
Natural Examples
The food at the camp was awful, but the lake was beautiful.
I feel awful about forgetting your birthday. Sorry!
There's an awful lot of homework this week.
Thanks for waiting. That was awfully patient of you.
Common Mistakes
Awful or awesome? They're opposites today.
❌ The concert was awful! I want to go again.
✅ The concert was awesome! I want to go again.
"An awful lot" isn't bad. It just means a lot.
❌ She has an awful lot of friends means her friends are terrible.
✅ It means she has very many friends.
"Awfully" can be a compliment.
❌ "That's awfully kind of you" is an insult.
✅ It means "that's very kind of you".
The OddLingo Timeline
AWE: fear, terror, dread (with respect growing over time)
↓
AWFUL: something that causes awe, frightening or deeply respected
↓
around 200 years ago: used casually for things that are very bad
↓
today's AWFUL: very bad or unpleasant, or informally very (an awful lot)
Meanwhile, awe itself drifted towards wonder, which is why today's awesome points the other way.
In a Conversation
Ella: How was the camping trip?
Sam: The weather was awful. It rained all weekend.
Ella: Oh no!
Sam: But the campfire songs were awesome, and we laughed an awful lot.
Awful (bad weather), awesome (great songs) and an awful lot (lots of laughing): three members of the same family doing three different jobs in one conversation.
The OddLingo Takeaway
Words don't have to stay loyal to their origins. Awe started out as fear, then became wonder. One of its children, awful, kept the fear and turned it into terrible. The other, awesome, followed the wonder and turned it into amazing.
It's not a mistake. It's simply what happens when millions of people use a word for hundreds of years. (Keep an eye on terrific. It has a surprisingly similar story.)
Quick Check
- The film was so ______ that we left early. (awful / awesome)
- What does There's an awful lot of snow outside mean?
- Your teacher says, That was awfully helpful, thank you. Is she happy or annoyed?
- Which word is closest to amazing today: awful or awesome?
- True or false: awful first meant very bad.
Answers
- awful: you leave early when a film is bad.
- There's a lot of snow. Nothing bad is meant.
- Happy. Awfully helpful means very helpful.
- awesome
- False. It first described things that caused awe, whether frightening or deeply respected. The "very bad" meaning came later.