1
as in unfortunate
having, prone to, or marked by bad luck
the unlucky campers had rain all week I'm so unlucky I don't bother to play the lottery an unlucky throw of the dice
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in tragic
of a kind to cause great distress
the settlers made the unlucky decision to cross the dangerous mountain pass in the middle of winter
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Recent Examples of unlucky
Bill Dabney of Pasadena was one of the unlucky few who had roof turds on his guest house that led directly to a big cat encounter.
—
Matt Reigle Outkick, FOXNews.com, 23 May 2026
Our unlucky simp is Bear (Michael Johnston), one of a quartet of early-20-something friends who work at a music store and get drunk at trivia as often as possible.
—Katie Walsh, Twin Cities, 23 May 2026
There’s a roughly 50-50 shot at survival, and the unlucky half will die in agony, bleeding profusely as their organs begin to fail.
—Neil Vora, Time, 22 May 2026
And then there is a gory massacre scene from the original Camp Miasma, in which Little Death (played by TV Glow‘s Jack Haven) slaughters dozens of unlucky campers to a highly unusual, anachronistic hit song from the 1990s.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 20 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for unlucky
Matt Reigle Outkick, FOXNews.com, 23 May 2026
Our unlucky simp is Bear (Michael Johnston), one of a quartet of early-20-something friends who work at a music store and get drunk at trivia as often as possible.
—Katie Walsh, Twin Cities, 23 May 2026
There’s a roughly 50-50 shot at survival, and the unlucky half will die in agony, bleeding profusely as their organs begin to fail.
—Neil Vora, Time, 22 May 2026
And then there is a gory massacre scene from the original Camp Miasma, in which Little Death (played by TV Glow‘s Jack Haven) slaughters dozens of unlucky campers to a highly unusual, anachronistic hit song from the 1990s.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 20 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for unlucky
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unlucky
Adjective
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There’s no question that this unfortunate cocktail of corruption, inefficiency, and simple incompetence is holding the country back.—
Daniel Alarcón,
New Yorker,
4 June 2026
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Unfortunately, going cold turkey off a central nervous system depressant like GHB has some pretty unfortunate side-effects.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
3 June 2026
Adjective
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Emergency responders say the toddler's death is a tragic reminder of how dangerous the water is, especially at this time of year when peak water flows are being recorded.—
Dillon Thomas,
CBS News,
4 June 2026
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During closing arguments on Monday, an attorney for the family of the two boys called on the jury to assess hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, rejecting the defense contention that what occurred was a tragic accident.—
City News Service,
Daily News,
3 June 2026
Adjective
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What’s leaving one unhappy child at home compared to sending five hundred people home from the theatre happy?—
Deborah Treisman,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
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Shohei Ohtani almost became the most unhappy pitcher to ever be part of throwing a no-hitter.—
Bill Plunkett,
Oc Register,
28 May 2026
Adjective
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Any one of those locations could have allowed the heat of reentry to burn through the aluminum alloy walls of the spacecraft, killing any luckless crew that may have been inside, in much the kind of reentry breakup that doomed the shuttle Columbia and its seven-person crew in 2003.—
Jeffrey Kluger,
Time,
11 Apr. 2026
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Vasyanovych plays Roman, a luckless director who’s out of work and trying to shoot his latest film in a country whose dwindling population is still traumatized by the war.—
Christopher Vourlias,
Variety,
6 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unlucky.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unlucky. Accessed 7 Jun. 2026.
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