What's the difference between sorrowful and woeful?

Sorrowful


Definition:

  • (a.) Full of sorrow; exhibiting sorrow; sad; dejected; distressed.
  • (a.) Producing sorrow; exciting grief; mournful; lamentable; grievous; as, a sorrowful accident.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It came in a mix of joy and sorrow and brilliance under pressure, with one of the most remarkable things you will ever see on a basketball court in the biggest moment.
  • (2) Troh, a 54-year-old nursing assistant, issued a statement on Wednesday that said: “I trust a thorough examination will take place regarding all aspects of his care … I am now dealing with the sorrow and anger that his son was not able to see him before he died.” That appeared to be a reference to frustration at the hospital’s initial failure to diagnose him correctly, and a delay of several days before they treated him with experimental drugs.
  • (3) Goodman deceived us all, the witnesses sorrowfully admitted.
  • (4) Photograph: AP This is the moment of our deepest sorrow.
  • (5) Separately, in a Question Time-style debate at the Radio Festival today, Ofcom executive Stewart Purvis said he reacted "more in sorrow than anger" at yesterday's stinging attack on the regulator by former GMG Radio chief executive John Myers .
  • (6) 'This is not the justice we seek': sorrow in Baltimore as grief turns into riots Read more The city has improved significantly in recent years – crime dropped, the economy improved, the population stopped declining for the first time in 60 years – but you couldn’t see Baltimore’s newfound prosperity in Freddie Gray’s backyard, or in the gardens nearby.
  • (7) But at this moment of the final parting, my heart is heavy with sorrow and grief.” On death: “There is an end to everything and I want mine to come as quickly and painlessly as possible, not with me incapacitated, half in coma in bed and with a tube going into my nostrils and down to my stomach.” “Even from my sickbed, even if you are going to lower me to the grave and I feel that something is going wrong, I will get up.
  • (8) Time to listen to ‘World in Motion’ on loop while drowning a million sweet sorrows.
  • (9) Shara Proctor, who might have had hopes of gold while Okagbare busied herself with the 200m, managed only two steps of a run-up before clutching at her left thigh and leaving the arena with her hoodie pulled sorrowfully around her face.
  • (10) Prayer has comforted us in sorrow, and will help strengthen us for the journey ahead.
  • (11) "Would all these girls," he asks, with a sorrow that defies any glib, one-should-be-so-lucky retort, "be fucking me if they weren't getting paid?"
  • (12) I have immense sorrow over the loss of that child but I also have immense joy when I think of her.
  • (13) More than a dozen times in his presidency, Barack Obama has appeared before television cameras and issued statements to express sorrow at a mass shooting event in America.
  • (14) The emotion called chronic sorrow, introduced in 1962 by Olshansky, has had limited exposure in the literature.
  • (15) Yet the Brazilians who were photographed unleashing their sorrow on a cloudy, darkening evening, in scenes of anguish from Estádio Mineirão to Copacabana beach, were not mourning a massacre, atrocity or anything else that might seem to justify such infinite sadness.
  • (16) This too, I recognise, is another coping strategy, a way to get through what could be a sorrowful few years or even decades ahead.
  • (17) Every day I spend in sorrow, thinking about my family and how to reach the UK.” Intelligent, and very motivated, he is particularly frustrated at not being to able to study; eventually he hopes to become a doctor.
  • (18) For my own part, I would like to express sorrow and regret to those most distressed by the actions of my predecessor.
  • (19) American viewers mourning the death of Dan Stevens' character Matthew Crawley at the end of the show's Christmas special will be able to drown their sorrows with Downton wine, wear Downton jewellery and grow Downton roses, as part of a merchandising push aimed at capitalising on the drama's phenomenal global success.
  • (20) The concert has been long prepared, Josh and his friend Ahmed from the perilous estates nearby laying tracks to "Jessie Wright" and another song for Agnes – "a tribute to a girl got shot in Hoxton", Josh says, with apparent nonchalance, but a stab of sorrowful anger in his eye.

Woeful


Definition:

  • (a.) Alt. of Woful

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Brazil, despite some woeful performances this year, is still the most successful international team but has not exactly been a political giant for most of its existence.
  • (2) Even if Honda manage to improve their woeful power unit and McLaren make improvements to their indifferent car, it is difficult to see the team running better than mid-table next term.
  • (3) The bill will allow same-sex marriage for the first time in the UK; it will offer the opportunity to convert civil partnerships to marriages; it will offer opt-in rights to religious establishments, with the exception of the Church of England; it will also allow transgender people to change their legal gender without dissolving their marriages (a woeful omission from earlier legislation).
  • (4) Herrera’s bending cross reached Depay and he punished Watford’s woeful marking by cushioning a firm volley past Heurelho Gomes.
  • (5) TOP-AND-BOTTOM-OF-THE-TABLE BEATINGS "Nottingham Forest's woeful 4-0 home defeat to Scunthorpe made me think: what's the worst defeat suffered by a team leading its league?"
  • (6) The woeful lack of clarity does not engender confidence and trust.
  • (7) His first touch is woeful and a shooting chance goes a begging.
  • (8) However, Nwofor capitalised on some woeful defending from Hanley in the 90th minute to sweep the ball home from close range.
  • (9) Labour’s communication strategy remains woeful, and it lacks the means to develop a grand narrative that ties this all together, or a way of getting out of the “but you caused the last crisis through your profligacy” trap.
  • (10) He’s a man that, at 22, clearly has the world at his feet.” Everton could not have wished for a better start as Villa’s woeful defending at set pieces was again exposed.
  • (11) This would be a woeful prospect when taken in isolation, but seems more reprehensible when we know that others with much greater liabilities (moral if not legal ones) are treated with kid gloves.
  • (12) Kevin Mountford of Moneysupermarket.com said most savers were still earning "very woeful rates" and could improve their returns by shopping around.
  • (13) "I've been shocked at how America's politicians have been cowed into a woeful, shameful virtual silence by the gun lobbyists and the all-powerful National Rifle Association in particular," Morgan said.
  • (14) The atomic lobby sometimes tries to pass off this woeful track record as ancient history, but it is not – just ask the Finns .
  • (15) Its computer systems are still woeful, with paper files still used more often than the tools of modern electronic case management.
  • (16) The figures in computing and engineering are woeful and I think that is to do with perceptions.
  • (17) I've gone for the 49ers 31-21, but I've had a pretty woeful playoffs as far as predictions go.
  • (18) Despite Cameron's promises that he would lead the campaign to empower women and ensure female equality, Britain ranks a woeful 65th in the world in terms of female representation in parliament behind Kazakhstan, Lesotho and even Afghanistan.
  • (19) Their own civil servants have already advised them that 40,000 more children would fall into poverty as a result of extending the cap (this is likely to be a woeful underestimate of the true figure).
  • (20) And the public accounts committee has decried the woeful success rate of his schemes.