noun
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evil fortune; bad luck
-
an unfortunate or disastrous event; calamity
Synonym Usage
See affliction.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of misfortune
Explanation
On a gloomy day, you may feel compelled to list your misfortunes: a broken umbrella, a broken heart, a broken toe. Misfortune means bad luck or the state of having bad luck. Break misfortune into its parts and you get mis- meaning bad and fortune meaning chance or luck. Sometimes it can feel like misfortune follows you. Picture it as a gloomy psychic named "Miss Fortune" who can only see the bad things in your future.
Vocabulary lists containing misfortune
Power Prefix: mis-
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"The Experiment" and "Superstition"
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Girl with a Pearl Earring
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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:
At the time of her misfortune, I was book editor of the Los Angeles Times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
For every moment of glory, there is a hard-luck story, a nation left to bemoan their misfortune and the injustices that have led to their downfall.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Chantal wants to testify so others avoid her misfortune.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
The conflicts of interest and questionably moral options to bet on the misfortune of others has prompted many states to try and rein these platforms in.
From Salon ● May 24, 2026
“No, this is what I want, but it is my misfortune instead to be hungry, out of humor, and too stupid to be a midwife’s apprentice.”
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
Back pain, difficult childbirth, dental crowding and sinus infections are not random misfortunes.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
But Germany’s misfortunes are also partly homemade, economists say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
As North Korea’s hagiographers rewrote history, they held American missionaries responsible for the country’s misfortunes, while state-sponsored novels, plays and museums depicted them as jackals who subjected Koreans to vile human experiments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
Until now, Ferguson - invariably known as Fergie - has been a great survivor in royal circles and has bounced back repeatedly from misfortunes.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026
As the memory of past misfortunes pressed upon me, I began to reflect on their cause—the monster whom I had created, the miserable dæmon whom I had sent abroad into the world for my destruction.
From "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley
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.
