unfortunate
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Unlucky, or regrettable.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnfawrchuhnuhtSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənˈfɔɹtʃənət
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Marked or accompanied by or resulting in misfortune.
Not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune
Not auspicious; boding ill
Regrettable or unsuitable.
noun
A person who suffers misfortune
An unlucky person; one who has fallen into bad circumstances.
Understand the Word
How this word is built, and what each part adds.
Unfortunate describes bad luck, or a situation you wish had turned out differently.
- un-
- not, or without
- fortunate
- lucky
Prefix function , Not — expresses absence of the quality
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Marked or accompanied by or resulting in misfortune.
Used this way, unfortunate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use unfortunate
- “An unfortunate turn of events.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Marked / favored
Unlucky
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A person who suffers misfortune.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: marked or accompanied by or resulting in misfortune
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.