Meaning

3 senses

  1. Unfortunately; regrettably.

  2. Through evil fate or chance; wretchedly.

  3. Without happiness; sadly.

More definitions
  • in an unpleasant way
  • in an unfortunate way

Examples

3 sentences

  1. Tom was unhappily married until his divorce.

    Ergulis · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. You doubtless mean well; but your ideas are unhappily mistaken.

    Hybrid · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Due to differing opinions between the two, they argued angrily, before leaving unhappily.

    BobbyLee · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Origin

From Middle English onhappily, unhappili, unhappily, unhappyly; equivalent to un- + happil

From Middle English onhappily, unhappili, unhappily, unhappyly; equivalent to un- + happily or unhappy + -ly.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

more unhappily, most unhappily
Comparativemore unhappily Lesson
Superlativemost unhappily

regular

Synonyms

1 synonyms
Close in meaning
  • in an unfortunate way:sadly

Antonyms

1 antonyms
happilyA2

Word family

1 related words
Relatedunhappy

Lessons for this word

2 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
ungratefulungulateunhappinessB2unhappyA2

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

unhappily — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto