misery

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
11
Words With Friends
11
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/ˈmɪz(ə)ɹɪ/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈmɪz(ə)ɹɪ/ · /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹi/

Definition of misery

6 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe.
    “Ever since his wife left him you can see the misery on his face.”
    “For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.”
    “It was not just the confusion that unhappiness brings, it was not just the loneliness, it was the despair that accompanies all those emotions that turns unhappiness into utter misery.”
    “Then, in January, a creeping tsunami of train cancellations, triggered by major staff absences as a result of the aggressive transmissibility of Omicron, heaped further misery on rail users.”
See all 6 definitions

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe.
    “Ever since his wife left him you can see the misery on his face.”
    “For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.”
    “It was not just the confusion that unhappiness brings, it was not just the loneliness, it was the despair that accompanies all those emotions that turns unhappiness into utter misery.”
    “Then, in January, a creeping tsunami of train cancellations, triggered by major staff absences as a result of the aggressive transmissibility of Omicron, heaped further misery on rail users.”
  2. (UK, US, countable, dialectal, uncountable)A bodily ache or pain.
    “[...] and I had a misery in my left breast and shoulder. I was hurt, but knew not how or how much.”
  3. (countable, uncountable)Cause of misery; calamity; misfortune.
  4. (countable, uncountable)poverty.
    “The Widdow that hath but a pan of braſſe, […] Muſt pay her Landlord many a groat, Or twil be puld out of her throat: […] The rich haue all, the poore liue in miſerie: […]”
  5. (archaic, countable, uncountable)greed; avarice.

name

  1. (derogatory, humorous, slang)Derogatory name for Missouri: a state of the United States.
    “First, the young lady whom you spoke as becoming [a] mistress of the establishment would most likely (if she could become as such) be brought into a state of misery, instead of being brought from the state of misery, (or Missouri), [...]”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English miserie, from Old French miserie (modern: misère), from Latin miseria, from miser, equivalent to miser + -y. Doublet of misère and mizeria.

Anagrams of misery

1 play · some not in Scrabble

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