unfortunate
[uhn-fawr-chuh-nit]
- suffering from bad luck: an unfortunate person.
- 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.
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- an unfortunate person.
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Origin of unfortunate
Synonyms
See more synonyms for unfortunate on Thesaurus.com1. unsuccessful, hapless.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for unfortunately
Contemporary Examples
Unfortunately, this is more about protecting the legacy of a ‘great man.’
I wish I could be writing to you under better circumstances, but unfortunately those avenues have closed up.
Unfortunately, the underground tunnels that were used to transport booze and, if necessary, escaping patrons, are off-limits.
Unfortunately, the most confused Ebola alarmists had millions of followers: Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter.
Unfortunately, that means suppressing fire or cutting down all the pretty uninfected trees can cause mistletoe outbreaks.
Historical Examples
The general probability of his statements could not, unfortunately be gainsaid.
The Grand Old ManRichard B. Cook
To do this is not as easy as it would be if our race-mind worked that way; but unfortunately it does not.
The Conquest of FearBasil King
It is the sensible schemes, unfortunately, that are hopeless in England.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
The only cheap commodity, one unfortunately we cannot live upon, is the bouquet.
In the Heart of VosgesMatilda Betham-Edwards
And we couldn't do the thing, unfortunately, as it deals with the harem.
It Happened in EgyptC. N. Williamson
unfortunately
- (sentence modifier) it is regrettable that; unluckily
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unfortunate
- causing or attended by misfortune
- unlucky, unsuccessful, or unhappyan unfortunate character
- regrettable or unsuitablean unfortunate speech
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- an unlucky person
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for unfortunately
adv.
1540s, from unfortunate + -ly (2). Originally "not successfully, to a regrettable extent." The proper meaning is now rare; the main modern sense of "sad to say," in parenthetical use, recorded from 1770s.
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unfortunate
adj.
1520s, "unlucky," from un- (1) "not" + fortunate. Infortunate in same sense is from late 14c. (along with a verb infortune "to render unhappy," and a noun meaning "bad luck). In late 18c.-early 19c., unfortunate woman was a polite way to say "prostitute." The noun meaning "one who is not fortunate" is recorded from 1630s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper