unhappy
Syllables: un·hap·py/ʌnˈhæpi/
unhappy adjective: not happy; sad.
Adjective
unhappy (comparative unhappier or more unhappy, superlative unhappiest or most unhappy)
- Not happy; sad.
- I am unhappy.
- A moment of time may make us unhappy forever.1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera
- Synonyms:
- sad, lamentable, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless
- Not satisfied; unsatisfied.
- An unhappy customer is unlikely to return to your shop.
- Synonyms:
- dissatisfied, uncontented
- Not lucky; unlucky.
- The doomed lovers must have been born under an unhappy star.
- The pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of the unhappy Prince like a sword, and from the wound his life's blood was spouting in a stream, and falling with a hiss into the road.1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 56
- Not suitable; unsuitable.
- The people, if they are not strangely bent
Against our welfare, never will consent
To this unhappy match, foreboding ill:
What's it to us, if th' adverse nation will?1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- unfit, inappropriate, bad, discommensurate, improper, malapropos, inapt, incommensurate, inept, inopportune
- The people, if they are not strangely bent
Noun
unhappy (plural unhappies)
- A person who is not happy.
- Leduc, as is true of many other unhappies, is largely a confessional writer: her subject is herself, and her gift is a driving, vivacious power that turns her incurable, inveterate unhappiness into a series of dramas […]1972, The New Yorker (volume 48, part 1, page 109)
Verb
unhappy (third-person singular simple present unhappies, present participle unhappying, simple past and past participle unhappied)
- To make or become unhappy; to sadden.
- A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappied and disfigured clean1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to... - In the greate desire I have unto your grace's service, nothing has more unhappied me than the wante of opportunitie in which I might expresse the character of my harte that onlie takes of your impressions.1625, Sir John Eliot, Letter to the duke of Buckingham
- A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
unhappy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
unhappy in Hindi
- नाखुश
unhappy in Tamil
- மகிழ்ச்சியற்றது, மகிழ்ச்சியற்றவர், மகிழ்ச்சியற்ற
unhappy in Urdu
- آزردہ, بیزار, مغموم, ناخوش, اداس
unhappy in Bengali
- অসুখী, বিষণ্ণ, মনমরা, অসন্তুষ্ট
More languagesFewer languages
- unhappy in Telugu
- అసంతృప్తిగా ఉంది
- unhappy in Malayalam
- അസന്തുഷ്ടമായ, അസന്തുഷ്ടിയുള്ള, ദുഃഖ, അനന്ദ
- unhappy in Kannada
- ಕಂಗಾರು, ಕುಂದಿದ, ದುಃಖದ, ಸಂತೋಷವಿಲ್ಲದ
- unhappy in Punjabi
- ਨਾਖੁਸ਼
- unhappy in Gujarati
- નાખુશ
- unhappy in Odia
- ଅସୁଖ asukha
- unhappy in Sanskrit
- अकुशल ákuśala, अरस arasá
- unhappy in Nepali
- नाखुश
- unhappy in Pashto
- غمجن ğamjan, خپه xapa, خواشينی xwâšinay
- unhappy in Arabic
- لَعُوق laʕūq
Examples of unhappy in a sentence
- The fans were very unhappy with the referee's spot of the ball.
- She was very unhappy in Iraq and a misfit in the Army.
- He was unhappy when he was alive, but now he's at peace.
Synonyms of unhappy
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of unhappy
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | unhappier |
| comparative | more unhappy |
| superlative | unhappiest |
| superlative | most unhappy |
| Noun | |
| plural | unhappies |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | unhappies |
| present participle | unhappying |
| past participle | unhappied |
| past | unhappied |
Origin of unhappy
From Middle English unhappy; equivalent to un- + happy.
Words formed from unhappy
Phrases with unhappy
Words that rhyme with unhappy
Questions about unhappy
- What does unhappy mean?
- Unhappy means not happy; sad.
- What is unhappy in Hindi?
- Unhappy in Hindi is नाखुश. See Unhappy meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is unhappy?
- Unhappy can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce unhappy?
- Unhappy is pronounced /ʌnˈhæpi/.
Words near unhappy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: unhappy (page history and authors); unhappy (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unhappy (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unhappy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unhappy (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unhappy (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unhappy (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); unhappy (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unhappy (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unhappy (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଅସୁଖ (Odia) (page history and authors); अकुशल (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); unhappy (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-unhappy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “unhappy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unhappy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.