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# unfortunate

«unfortunate» in Mova's school dictionary: **Having bad luck; unlucky** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (unfortunate); noun (an unfortunate, unfortunates — formal, old-fashioned); adverb unfortunately

### meaning for a pupil

1) Having bad luck; unlucky. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#m1)

2) Causing problems or sad results: an unfortunate accident. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#m2)

3) (formal) Not suitable and a bit embarrassing: an unfortunate remark. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#m3)

4) (noun, old-fashioned) A poor or unlucky person. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In stories it signals bad luck or a sad event; in formal speech «It is unfortunate that …» is a polite way to say something is bad. The adverb «unfortunately» starts sentences with bad news. Phrases: «an unfortunate accident», «it is unfortunate that».

### examples

- It was unfortunate that it rained on sports day. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#x1)
- The unfortunate boy dropped his ice cream. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#x2)
- An unfortunate mix-up sent our parcel to the wrong town. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#x3)
- Calling the new teacher by the wrong name was an unfortunate slip. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#x4)
- Unfortunately, the shop was shut. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#x5)
- The kind woman helped the unfortunates of the town. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#x6)
- What had become of all these unfortunate children? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/#x7)

### note

Takes «an»: «an unfortunate event». Unfortunately = sadly, used for bad news. Opposite: fortunate, lucky. Polite formal speech uses «unfortunate» to soften bad news.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «unfortunate» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/unfortunate/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.