English Meaning & Definitions
Bad luck or an unfortunate event, condition, or circumstance.
- “The family suffered great misfortune when their home was destroyed in a fire.”
- “She handled her recent business misfortune with remarkable grace and resilience.”
English Synonyms & Near Equivalents
English Antonyms & Opposites
Comprehensive Thesaurus Breakdown
Compare formal, informal, literary synonyms and register nuances for “misfortune”.
Derived from Middle English, formed by combining the prefix 'mis-' (meaning 'bad' or 'wrong', from Old English/Old Norse) with the noun 'fortune' (meaning 'luck' or 'chance', from Old French and Latin 'fortuna').
Think of it as 'MISSING fortune'—when you miss out on good luck, you are left with misfortune.
Frequently Asked Questions About “misfortune”
1. What is the meaning of “misfortune” in English?
In English, misfortune (noun) is defined as: “Bad luck or an unfortunate event, condition, or circumstance.”.
2. How do you use “misfortune” in a sentence?
“The family suffered great misfortune when their home was destroyed in a fire.”
3. What are English synonyms of “misfortune”?
4. What is the etymology and word origin of “misfortune”?
Derived from Middle English, formed by combining the prefix 'mis-' (meaning 'bad' or 'wrong', from Old English/Old Norse) with the noun 'fortune' (meaning 'luck' or 'chance', from Old French and Latin 'fortuna').
🇬🇧More English Words to English
View all English words →A measurement of time indicating an instantaneous occurrence or a state where no time has elapsed.
The base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), equal to the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.
A specific duration of time equal to one hour and forty-six minutes and twelve seconds.
The cardinal number equal to one thousand million (1,000,000,000), expressed in scientific notation as 10^9.