misery

Meaning

  1. (countable, uncountable) Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe.
  2. (UK, US, countable, dialectal, uncountable) A bodily ache or pain.
  3. (countable, uncountable) Cause of misery; calamity; misfortune.
  4. (countable, uncountable) poverty.
  5. (archaic, countable, uncountable) greed; avarice.

Synonyms

distress
C1
suffering
B1
grief
B2
sorrow
B2
wretchedness
poverty
C1
misfortune
C1
sadness
C1
torment
C1
anguish
C2
pain
A2
hardship
C2
trouble
A1
agony
C1
accident
A2
unhappiness
C2
squalor
31k
disaster
B2

destitution

discomfort
C2
affliction
20k
adversity
C2
hardships
C2
scrubbiness
tribulations
38k
woe
C2
bad luck
pity
B1
heartache
C2
mischance
miserableness
abjection
impoverishment
melancholy
C2
want
A1
trashiness
torture
B2
heartbreak
C2
tragedy
B2
woefulness
passion
B2
catastrophe
C1
need
A1
mishap
C2
ache
C1
mournfulness
calamity
C2
misfortunes
23k
nastiness
45k
misadventure
46k
Translations

misère
Elend
miseria
miseria
ellende
Not
narigheid
souffrance
sofferenza
miséria
Unglück
armoe
accidente
nood
penuria
Frequency

B2
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈmɪz(ə)ɹɪ/
Etymology

Inherited from Middle English
miserie
In summary

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

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