Word.ws English Dictionary

unhappily

/ʌnˈhæpɪli/

unhappily adverb: unfortunately; regrettably.

Adverb

unhappily (comparative more unhappily, superlative most unhappily)

  1. Unfortunately; regrettably.
    • The annals of savagery and superstition unhappily compose a large part of human literature.1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page xi
    • The line to Dunières consists of a series of breakneck descents almost invariably ended by a violent curve and followed immediately by a panting climb, on which the engine barked thunderously but failed unhappily to maintain its booked speed of 13 m.p.h.1961 November, H. G. Ellison, P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 668
  2. Through evil fate or chance; wretchedly.
  3. Without happiness; sadly.

Antonyms of unhappily

Forms of unhappily

comparativemore unhappily
superlativemost unhappily

Origin of unhappily

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

Words that rhyme with unhappily

Questions about unhappily

What does unhappily mean?
Unhappily means unfortunately; regrettably.
What part of speech is unhappily?
Unhappily is an adverb.
How do you pronounce unhappily?
Unhappily is pronounced /ʌnˈhæpɪli/.

Words near unhappily in the dictionary

  1. unhappens
  2. unhappied
  3. unhappier
  4. unhappies
  5. unhappiest
  6. unhappily
  7. unhappiness
  8. unhappinesses
  9. unhappy
  10. unhappy number
  11. unhappy numbers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unhappily (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-unhappily.ogg.

Cite this entry: “unhappily.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unhappily. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.