Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Bitterly |
BitterlyAdverb1. In a resentful manner; "she complained bitterly". 2. Indicating something hard to accept; "he was bitterly disappointed". 3. Extremely and sharply; "it was bitterly cold"; "bitter cold". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "bitterly" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1200. (references) |
Synonyms: BitterlySynonyms: bitingly (adv), bitter (adv), piercingly (adv), with bitterness (adv). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Cold | Adverb: coldly, bitterly. Adjective: pierre fendre; |
Greatness | Painfully, sadly, grossly, sorely, bitterly, piteously, grievously, miserably, cruelly, woefully, lamentably, shockingly, frightfully, dreadfully, fearfully, terribly, horribly. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Bitterly |
| English words defined with "bitterly": bitingly, bitter ♦ cry ♦ inveigh ♦ opposed ♦ piercingly ♦ rail ♦ Sarcastical ♦ weep. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "bitterly": Apostles ♦ Bochim ♦ Lament ♦ Mustard ♦ Rumpelstilzchen, Ruydera ♦ Shoe Pinches ♦ Weather-cock. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "bitterly": sarcasm. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Bitterly disappointed (The Hollywood Squares; writing credit: Gary Johnson) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Winnie the Pooh | A.A. Milne | "Ha-ha", said Eeyore bitterly. "Merriment and what-not. Don't apologize. It's just what would happen." |
Sylvie and Bruno | Carroll, Lewis | Bruno was standing with his hands over his face, crying bitterly. |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | Even little babes, when I take them in my arms, weep bitterly. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He shed hot tears, he wept bitterly, with more weakness than a woman, with more terror than a child |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | He sobbed loudly and bitterly. |
King Richard III | Shakespeare, William | I cannot tell if to depart in silence Or bitterly to speak in your reproof Best fitteth my degree or your condition |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Serbia and Montenegro | In January 1998, Milo Djukanovic became Montenegro's President, following bitterly contested elections in November 1997, which had been adjudged by international monitors to have been free and fair. (references) |
Political Economy | CHILE | Domestic flour millers and beverage manufacturers continue to complain bitterly about the high duties on wheat and sugar. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Bitterly" is generally used as an adverb (general) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Bitterly" is used about 1,096 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adverb (general) | 100% | 1,096 | 6,892 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes names derived from the word "bitterly". | |||
| Name | Gender | Language | Meaning |
| Evil-merodach | N/A | Biblical | The fool grinds bitterly |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references.
| |||
Expressions using "bitterly": cry bitterly ♦ weep bitterly. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "bitterly": bitterly-disputed, bitterly-fought, bitterly-upset. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "bitterly"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | thekshëm (heartfelt), hidhur. (various references) | |
Arabic | مرير (bitter, salt), لاذع (acerb, acid, acrid, acrimonious, biting, bitter, burning, caustic, cutting, harsh, hot, keen, mordant, nippy, peppery, piquant, poignant, pungent, rough, salty, sarcastic, savory, savoury, scathing, scorching, sharp, sharp tongued, smarting, snappish, snappy, spicy, spiteful, stinging, tart, waspish). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | горчиво, горко, озлобено. (various references) | |
Chinese | 苦涩地. (various references) | |
Czech | urputnì, trpce, nemilosrdnì (unmercifully), hořce. (various references) | |
Finnish | on paukkuva pakkanen (it is bitterly cold). (various references) | |
French | saumâtre (bitter), avec amertume, amèrement. (various references) | |
German | bitter (abject, acerbic, acrid, acrimoniously, bitter, bitters, cruel, deadly, grievous, hard, nasty, painful, pungent). (various references) | |
Greek | με πικρία, πικρά, τσουχτερός (crisp). (various references) | |
Hebrew | למרר בבכי (weep bitterly), ל"תיפח (cry bitterly, sob). (various references) | |
Hungarian | keservesen (dearly, grievously, hard, the hard way), keserûen, keserűen (sardonically, sourly), elkeseredetten (desperately, tooth and nail). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 否という程 (extremely, persistently). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | いやというほど (extremely, persistently). (various references) | |
Korean | "게. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | itterlybay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | cruelmente (cruelly, harshly, severely), amargamente. (various references) | |
Romanian | vehement (harangue, hot and strong, passionate, passionately, vehement, vehemently, violent), cu amãrãciune, amarnic (dreadful, grievous, hard, terrible), amar (bitter, bitterness, dreadful, gall, poignant, rude, salt, severe, sore, sour, suffering). (various references) | |
Russian | горько. (various references) | |
Scottish | guineach (bitterly malicious, keen). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | ogorčeno (indignantly), ljutito (angrily, annoyingly, crossly, harshly, huff). (various references) | |
Spanish | amargamente. (various references) | |
Swedish | bittert, bitterligen. (various references) | |
Thai | ที่เสีย"แทงใจ, ที่ขมขื่น. (various references) | |
Turkish | keskin olarak, için için (innerly, within), acı olarak (poignantly). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | сильно (aloud, amain, deep, deeply, hard, high, loud, nervously, powerfully, severely, sound, strongly, sturdily, violently, widely), розлючено, гірко. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | amare, amarum, atrociter. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Luke Chapter 22, Verse 62 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Kai exelqwn exw o petroV eklausen pikrwV |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Et egressus foras Petrus flevit amare |
| Old English | 990 | West Saxon | þa eode petrus ut and biterlice weop: |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | And Petre yede out, and wepte bittirli. |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | And Peter went out and wepte bitterly. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | And Peter went out, and wept bitterly. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | And Peter went out, and wept bitterly. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | And he went out, weeping bitterly. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Luke Chapter 22, Verse 62 |
| Cebuano | Ug siya migowa ug mihilak sa hilabihang kasakit. |
| Chinese | 他 就 出 去 痛 " 。 |
| Croatian | I iziðe te gorko zaplaka. |
| Danish | Og han gik udenfor og græd bitterligt. |
| Dutch | En Petrus, naar buiten gaande, weende bitterlijk. |
| Finnish | Ja hän meni ulos ja itki katkerasti. |
| French | Et étant sorti, il pleura amèrement. |
| German | Und Petrus ging hinaus und weinte bitterlich. |
| Hungarian | És kimenvén Péter, keservesen síra. |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | Maka keluarlah Petrus dari situ dan menangis tersedu-sedu. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Lalu keluarlah ia, serta menangis tersedih-sedih. |
| Italian | E, uscito, pianse amaramente. |
| Latvian | Un Pçteris, izgâjis ârâ, rûgti raudâja. |
| Maori | Na haere atu ana a Pita ki waho, a nui atu tona tangi. |
| Norwegian | Og han gikk ut og gråt bitterlig. |
| Portuguese | E, havendo saído, chorou amargamente. |
| Rumanian | Wi a iewit afarq, wi a plkns cu amar. |
| Shuar | Nuyá Pítiur jiinki ti uutmiayi. |
| Swahili | Hapo akatoka nje, akalia sana. |
| Swedish | Och han gick ut och grät bitterligen. |
| Uma | Palai-nami Petrus hilou hi mali-na, pai' -i geo' ngkai kapeda' nono-na. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Misspellings | |
"Bitterly" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Balterley, battely, bitterley, bittery, bittily, Botterell, Botterills, Bottomly, brittlely, bttrly, butterly, Buttlerley, Buturlin, bytery, Hidderley. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "bitterly" (pronounced bi"terlē) |
| 4 | -t er l ē | easterly, masterly, northeasterly, northwesterly, painterly, quarterly, utterly, westerly. |
| 3 | -er l ē | brotherly, circularly, cleverly, lawyerly, disorderly, eagerly, elderly, entirely, extracellularly, fatherly, formerly, gingerly, grandfatherly, grandmotherly, improperly, irregularly, leisurely, linearly, miserly, motherly, neighborly, northerly, orderly, overly, particularly, peculiarly, popularly, properly, regularly, scholarly, similarly, singularly, soberly, somberly, southerly, spectacularly, tenderly, Weatherly. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-e-i-l-r-t-t-y" | |
-1 letter: brittle, brittly, liberty, littery, tritely. | |
-2 letters: bitter, litter, riblet, tetryl, tilter, trebly, trilby. | |
-3 letters: beryl, birle, biter, bitty, blite, britt, liber, liter, litre, relit, riley, tiler, titer, title, titre, tribe, trite. | |
-4 letters: belt, bier, bile, birl, bite, bitt, blet, brie, brit, byre, byrl, byte, lier, lire, lite, lyre, rely, riel, rile, rite, tier, tile. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-e-i-l-r-t-t-y" | |
+1 letter: brittlely. | |
+3 letters: bipartitely, rentability. | |
+4 letters: alterability, biotelemetry, butterflying, exorbitantly, heritability, reputability, tolerability, traceability, treatability. | |
+5 letters: attributively, bacteriolytic, bathymetrical, bittersweetly, breathability, creditability, deterrability, exportability, extrudability, filterability, integrability, marketability, obstetrically, obstructively, overstability, penetrability, repeatability, resectability, resistibility, retributively, sinterability. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Quotations: Fiction 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Names: Derived from | 9. Expressions 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Bible Trace | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.