unfortunate

unfortunate (ʌnˈfɔːtʃənɪt)

—*adj*
1.	causing or attended by misfortune
2.	unlucky, unsuccessful, or unhappy: an unfortunate character
3.	regrettable or unsuitable: an unfortunate speech

—n
4.	an unlucky person

un'fortunateness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

unfortunate

1520s, "unlucky," from un- (1) "not" + fortunate. 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.

Example sentences from the web

I do not advise the unfortunate excess of continual suffering.

This unfortunate combination caused religious observance to seriously wane.

Perhaps it was the first that the unfortunate creature had ever shed.

Use Dictionary.com faster without ads >>

devil dirty emerge fellow feeling hand hapless

Matching Quote

"He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter."

-Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women