misery
Americannoun
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wretchedness of condition or circumstances.
- Synonyms:
- trial, tribulation, suffering
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distress or suffering caused by need, privation, or poverty.
-
great mental or emotional distress; extreme unhappiness.
- Synonyms:
- desolation, torment, woe, anguish, grief
- Antonyms:
- happiness
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a cause or source of distress.
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Older Use.
-
a pain.
a misery in my left side.
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Often miseries. a case or period of despondency or gloom.
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noun
-
intense unhappiness, discomfort, or suffering; wretchedness
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a cause of such unhappiness, discomfort, etc
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squalid or poverty-stricken conditions
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informal a person who is habitually depressed
he is such a misery
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dialect a pain or ailment
Synonym Usage
See sorrow.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of misery
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English miserie, from Latin miseria, equivalent to miser “wretched” + -ia -y 3
Explanation
Misery is a state of deep unhappiness or discomfort. It's not dropping your ice cream cone. It's having a hairy monster steal your ice cream cone, eat it in one bite, and then kidnap you and carry you off to his cave. Misery describes a miserable situation and a miserable feeling. Waiting four hours in the hot sun for a concert you don't want to see and can't afford? That's misery. The only way to survive is to bring a friend who hates the band as much as you––because misery loves company.
Vocabulary lists containing misery
Inside Out & Back Again
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"The People Could Fly," Vocabulary from the folk tale
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Ms. Aviv relates the story of what happened and the cascade of sorrow, misery and estrangement that followed in a manner that, in another context, has been called the “gentle application of overwhelming force.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Stylish in his misery, he is impeccably clad in a black suit and looks like a cross between Marcello Mastroianni in “8 1/2” and John Travolta in “Pulp Fiction.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
Spoiler alert, if you somehow avoided Homer in community college: Nobody, save biblical Job, has had more misery hurled at them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
"She's dead," he said hours later, misery etched into his face.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
In spite of her misery, the idea was so silly Nhamo gave him a watery smile.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
No wonder mud became “shorthand for the miseries of poverty,” Ms. Ziegelman writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
Apartments, in her view, have spared her from the miseries of suburban housing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2025
It’s possible artificial intelligence won’t usher us into obsolescence before it joins us in tuning out the miseries inherent to existing.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2025
The miseries and triumphs of Greenfield’s life exemplified the classic tale of immigration to America.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 22, 2024
At times he thought seriously of going with all his sorrows to see the chaplain, but the chaplain seemed so overburdened with miseries of his own that Major Major shrank from adding to his troubles.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
