Word.ws English Dictionary

misère

/mɪˈzɛə(ɹ)/

misère noun: a bid to lose every trick, or the majority of tricks, with no trumps.

Noun

misère (usually uncountable, plural misères)

  1. (usually, especially whist) A bid to lose every trick, or the majority of tricks, with no trumps.
    • The exasperating frequency of hands where one card alone, such as a king or ace, supported by a deuce only, or king or ace bare, debars the holder from calling misère is an experience common to every player.1895, Barry Pain, Jerome Klapka Jerome (contributors), To-Day, A Weekly Magazine-Journal, volume 9, number 105, page 248

Adjective

misère (not comparable)

  1. Played according to the reverse of the usual winning convention.
    • A strategy in misère backgammon is to put six blots in a row.
  2. Of a game, in which a player who is unable to move wins.

Forms of misère

pluralmisères
alternative formmisere

Origin of misère

Borrowed from French misère. Doublet of misery and mizeria.

Words formed from misère

Words that rhyme with misère

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about misère

What does misère mean?
Misère means a bid to lose every trick, or the majority of tricks, with no trumps.
What part of speech is misère?
Misère can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce misère?
Misère is pronounced /mɪˈzɛə(ɹ)/.
What is the plural of misère?
The plural of misère is misères.

Words near misère in the dictionary

  1. miszealous
  2. miszip
  3. miszipped
  4. miszipping
  5. miszips
  6. misère
  7. misère ouvert
  8. misères
  9. miséricorde
  10. miséricordes
  11. misíthra

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: misère (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “misère.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mis%C3%A8re. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.