unlucky
Americanadjective
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(of a person) not lucky; lacking good fortune; ill-fated.
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(of an event or circumstance) inauspicious or characterized by misfortune; ominous.
adjective
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characterized by misfortune or failure
an unlucky person
an unlucky chance
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ill-omened; inauspicious
an unlucky date
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regrettable; disappointing
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dialect causing trouble; mischievous
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unlucky
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:
Your friend was unlucky that she took a tumble on those basement stairs.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
Going back to our earlier example, if the million-dollar home fell in value by 10%, the unlucky owner of this highly leveraged asset would lose 50% of their initial equity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Emilio Gay - 5 - So unlucky to be the latest victim of the poor Lord's pitch after reaching 31 in the second innings.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
Characters forced to make do either lash out, like raging overreactors on Lee Sung Jin’s petty, brutal “Beef,” or fall into holding patterns, like the unlucky in love leads of Issa Rae’s dramedy “Insecure.”
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
Once rid of her and her unlucky charm, he turned and strode off with purpose.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
"We couldn't have been unluckier than that. This is not what we were expecting," said Harmanpreet.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2023
"Is there anyone unluckier than me?" said Xiaohongshu user "sanmingliu", who posted photos of her shipping container room.
From Reuters ● Nov. 2, 2022
But there have been even unluckier players than Trout.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 5, 2020
We saw that, though we were born in far unluckier places, we have all the same talents as our Western-born peers.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2019
Unlucky Cornet Remy; unluckier Colonel Damas, with whom there ride desperate only some loyal Two!
From The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
The first thing that had to go right was an unbelievable stroke of luck on the unluckiest night of Tatum’s life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
They have been called “the unluckiest generation” in U.S. history.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 10, 2026
An early pit stop and a limited tyre allocation boxed Aston and Alonso in, and he bemoaned on the radio that he was "the unluckiest driver ever" as he slumped to an 11th-place finish.
From BBC ● May 18, 2025
How did one of football’s unluckiest franchises manage to blow things this badly?
From Slate ● Jan. 29, 2024
“It’s the unluckiest thing you can have on a racetrack.”
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
