unfortunate
Americanadjective
-
suffering from bad luck.
an unfortunate person.
- Synonyms:
- hapless, unsuccessful
-
unfavorable or inauspicious.
an unfortunate beginning.
-
regrettable or deplorable.
an unfortunate remark.
-
marked by or inviting misfortune.
an unfortunate development.
-
lamentable; sad.
the unfortunate death of her parents.
noun
adjective
-
causing or attended by misfortune
-
unlucky, unsuccessful, or unhappy
an unfortunate character
-
regrettable or unsuitable
an unfortunate speech
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of unfortunate
Explanation
Something unfortunate is something that you wished had not happened — like that unfortunate incident that got you suspended from school. Let's not bring that up. Unfortunate can also describe unlucky circumstances. A natural disaster like an earthquake or a tornado will always have unfortunate consequences. You can even use unfortunate as a noun to identify someone or something not favored by fortune — like the unfortunates whose lives were shattered by the earthquake.
Vocabulary lists containing unfortunate
Oh, No! Synonyms for "Bad"
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Vocabulary from the Songs of "The Little Mermaid"
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Schooled
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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:
After three replacement surgeries, she said, "I assumed my difficulty walking was simply an unfortunate and rather ironic part of the recovery process."
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Which is unfortunate, because there are moments in which Waters gets very close to some revelations about when and why women are valued.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
Speaking to the BBC on Monday, Nigeria's foreign ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa described the incident as "a very unfortunate situation".
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The unfortunate reality is that nearly every period of injustice the U.S. has experienced has come at the expense of human lives.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
As she came walking in, looking very tired but as composed as ever, she observed that every vestige of the unfortunate fete had disappeared, except a suspicious pucker about the corners of Jo’s mouth.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
The variety of goals that the Japanese striker scores is astonishing, but all of them have one thing in common - speed of thought that bewilders the unfortunates tasked with the job of marking him.
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2023
These unfortunates are forced to live in hiding in the attics and basements of the sympathetic forgetful.
From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2020
“Bounteous Los Angeles saw to it yesterday that the unfortunates within her gates had reason to be thankful for at least one plate of hot, steaming turkey fit for a king,” a 1935 story said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2019
Are you remembering where you were, whether you watched it at Nationals Park or on TV live or, for the poor unfortunates, when you only saw it on replay?
From Washington Post ● Oct. 2, 2019
The ferryman was Charon and those he would not admit to his boat were the unfortunates who had not been duly buried.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
