misfortune
Other forms: misfortunes
On a gloomy day, you may feel compelled to list your misfortunes: a broken umbrella, a broken heart, a broken toe. Misfortune means bad luck or the state of having bad luck.
Break misfortune into its parts and you get mis- meaning bad and fortune meaning chance or luck. Sometimes it can feel like misfortune follows you. Picture it as a gloomy psychic named "Miss Fortune" who can only see the bad things in your future.
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an unfortunate state resulting from unfavorable outcomes
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synonyms:
bad luck, ill luck, tough luck
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Antonyms:
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good fortune, good luck, luckiness
an auspicious state resulting from favorable outcomes
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types:
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weakness
the condition of being financially weak
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adversity, hard knocks, hardship
a state of misfortune or affliction
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gutter, sewer, toilet
a state of misfortune resulting in lost effort or money
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hard cheese
bad luck
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ill-being
lack of prosperity or happiness or health
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catastrophe, disaster
a state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune
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extremity
an extreme condition or state (especially of adversity or disease)
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distress
a state of adversity (danger or affliction or need)
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affliction
a state of great suffering and distress due to adversity
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victimisation, victimization
adversity resulting from being made a victim
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low-water mark, nadir
an extreme state of adversity; the lowest point of anything
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good fortune, good luck, luckiness
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unnecessary and unforeseen trouble resulting from an unfortunate event
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synonyms:
bad luck
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types:
- show 22 types...
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pity, shame
an unfortunate development
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misadventure, mischance, mishap
an instance of misfortune
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calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe, disaster, tragedy
an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
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adversity
a stroke of ill fortune; a calamitous event
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hardship
something that causes or entails suffering
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knock
a bad experience
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accident
an unfortunate mishap; especially one causing damage or injury
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near miss
an accidental collision that is narrowly avoided
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derailment
an accident in which a train runs off its track
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ground loop
a sharp uncontrollable turn made by an airplane while moving along the ground
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puncture
loss of air pressure in a tire when a hole is made by some sharp object
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act of God, force majeure, inevitable accident, unavoidable casualty, vis major
a natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of events
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apocalypse
a cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil
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famine
a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death
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kiss of death
something that is ruinous
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meltdown
a disaster comparable to a nuclear meltdown
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plague
any large-scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God)
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visitation
any disaster or catastrophe
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slip, trip
an accidental misstep threatening (or causing) a fall
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tidal wave
an unusual (and often destructive) rise of water along the seashore caused by a storm or a combination of wind and high tide
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tsunami
a cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption
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crash
(computer science) an event that causes a computer system to become inoperative
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type of:
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trouble
an event causing distress or pain
/ˈmɪsˌfɔrtʃən/
/mɪsˈfɔtʃun/
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Vocabulary lists containing misfortune
Edge: Level A, Volume 1, Unit 1, Cluster 1. Here are links to the other clusters within Unit 1: "The Experiment" and "Superstition", "Building Bridges" and "The Right Words at the Right Time", "The Open Window" and "One in a Million"
Edge: Level B, Volume 2, Unit 5, Cluster 1. Here are links to the other clusters within Unit 5: "The Interlopers" and "An Interview with the King of Terror", "The Baby-Sitter" and "Beware: Do Not Read This Poem", "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Raven"
An American-born daughter of missionaries recounts her childhood in China during a period of political unrest.
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