unpleasantry
Americannoun
-
unpleasantries
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of unpleasantry
First recorded in 1820–30; un- 1 + pleasantry
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:
Don’t just take it as another travel unpleasantry and move on.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Scrambling to replace their health insurance and find new work, some fired federal workers are running into the unexpected unpleasantry of relatives cheering their job loss.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2025
The brilliance of “Stranger Things 4” is that rather than gloss over the unpleasantry, it leans hard into their clumsy, painful transition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2022
I still believe the deal will get done with the Seahawks, and this absence is an unpleasantry that will be quickly forgotten.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 7, 2022
I hope, friend Lee, there will be no unpleasantry between them.”
From Midnight Webs by George Manville Fenn
"These difficulties are just unpleasantries," she told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
She said she believed it would set a precedent which would allow the "most vulnerable individuals" to seek justice without having to endure "the unpleasantries of a trial".
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2023
Reporting to work has always meant accepting a variety of unpleasantries: commutes, pre-coffee chitchat, people who would like you to do what they tell you to do even if it’s not yet 10 a.m.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 19, 2022
His pragmatism and unwillingness to avoid the unpleasantries of life shaped decades of thinking among empirically minded practitioners of psychotherapy.
From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2020
Grown humans try so hard to shield themselves from the unpleasantries of life.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
![]()
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.