noun
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evil fortune; bad luck
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an unfortunate or disastrous event; calamity
Related Words
See affliction.
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.
"It was kind of funny, amid our misfortune."
From Barron's • May 5, 2026
Many youth—not just those who have had the grave misfortune of being arrested and stuck in hellish immigration detention centers—are intently watching these interactions and wondering what’s next for them.
From Slate • Apr. 27, 2026
Even the way that she reacts to her misfortune — and a lot of it is self-inflicted — feels like a past version of me, or a low-vibrational version of me.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026
This is her first medal since Pyeongchang 2018 and follows her Beijing 2022 misfortune, and it matches the medal she won as a teenager at Sochi 2014.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 2026
Of enjoyment at the fact that his brother-in-law’s money couldn’t protect him from this misfortune?
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
