Synonyms for adversity
All synonyms
Noun
1. Misfortune — the state of adverse conditions; state of misfortune or calamity
misfortune, misery, disaster, suffering, calamity, sorrow, affliction, trouble, distress, woe, tragedy, grief, bad luck, ill luck, trial, mishap, mischance, unluckiness, misluck, tribulation, unhappiness, misadventure
Definitions
- n. 1
The state of adverse conditions; state of misfortune or calamity.
Forms
- Plural
- adversities → misfortunes, miseries, disasters, sufferings…
Choose the right word
Any considerable disappointment, failure, or misfortune, as regards outward circumstances, as loss of fortune, position, and the like, when long continued or attended with enduring consequences, constitutes adversity.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- suffering I have a headache and I am suffering from a cough.
- disaster We will first ascertain the cause of the disaster.
- misery Tom blamed all his misery on planned obsolescence.
- misfortune What greater misfortune is there than to go blind?
- hardship They had to endure great hardship during the war.
- nakba Israelis are having their own Nakba.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| adversity | rising | |
| suffering | rising | |
| disaster | rising | |
| misery | rising | |
| misfortune | steady | |
| hardship | falling |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- woe1
- 5 letters
- trial2, grief1, nakba
- 6 letters
- misery3, sorrow2, mishap2
- 7 letters
- trouble2, tragedy3, misluck
- 8 letters
- disaster3, distress2, hardship2, calamity4
- 9 letters
- suffering3, mischance
- 10 letters
- misfortune3, affliction3
- 11 letters
- unhappiness4, tribulation4, unluckiness
- 12 letters
- misadventure4
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (trial2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- malheur
- Italiano
- sventura
- Español
- infortunio
- Deutsch
- Malheur
- Català
- desgràcia