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Mournfully vs Sadly - What's the difference?

mournfully | sadly |

As adverbs the difference between mournfully and sadly

is that mournfully is in a mournful manner; as if in mourning for something while sadly is in a sad manner; sorrowfully.

mournfully

English

Adverb

(en adverb)
  • In a mournful manner; as if in mourning for something.
  • * 1927 , , page 140
    • The steamer itself had vanished, but the great scroll of smoke still hung in the air and drooped like a flag mournfully in valediction.
  • * 1836 , (Hans Christian Andersen) (translated into English by Mrs. H. B. Paull in 1872), (The Little Mermaid)
  • *:"Why have not we an immortal soul?" asked the little mermaid mournfully ; "I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars."

    • Synonyms

    * (l), (l)

    Hypernyms

    * (l)

    sadly

    English

    Adverb

    (en-adv)
  • In a sad manner; sorrowfully.
  • Unfortunately, sad to say.
  • :
  • :
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 15, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
    • , title= Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea , passage=Before kick-off, a section of Chelsea's support sadly let themselves and their club down by noisily interrupting the silence held in memory of the Hillsborough disaster and for Livorno midfielder Piermario Morosini, who collapsed and died after suffering a heart attack during a Serie B game on Saturday.}}
  • (label) Deeply, completely.
  • *:
  • *:By my feythe sayd syre launcelot in that pauelione wil I lodge alle this nyghte / and soo there he alyghte doune and tayed his hors to the pauelione / and there he vnarmed hym / and there he fond a bedde / and layd hym theryn / and felle on slepe sadly

    • Usage notes

    In sense of “unfortunately”, most often used either in the collocation “sadly mistaken” or as a (sentence adverb). See discussion of sentence modifiers at (hopefully) and (regretfully).

    Synonyms

    * (in a sad manner) (l), (l), (l), (l) (various terms for particular shades of sadness) * (unfortunately) (l), (l), (l), (l), (l)