Library / English Dictionary

    UNHAPPINESS

    Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

     I. (noun) 

    Sense 1

    Meaning:

    Emotions experienced when not in a state of well-beingplay

    Synonyms:

    sadness; unhappiness

    Classified under:

    Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

    Hypernyms ("unhappiness" is a kind of...):

    feeling (the experiencing of affective and emotional states)

    Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "unhappiness"):

    dolefulness (sadness caused by grief or affliction)

    heaviness (persisting sadness)

    melancholy (a feeling of thoughtful sadness)

    misery (a feeling of intense unhappiness)

    desolation; forlornness; loneliness (sadness resulting from being forsaken or abandoned)

    tearfulness; weepiness (sadness expressed by weeping)

    sorrow (an emotion of great sadness associated with loss or bereavement)

    regret; rue; ruefulness; sorrow (sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment)

    cheerlessness; uncheerfulness (a feeling of dreary or pessimistic sadness)

    depression (sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)

    dejectedness; dispiritedness; downheartedness; low-spiritedness; lowness (a feeling of low spirits)

    Derivation:

    unhappy (generalized feeling of distress)

    unhappy (experiencing or marked by or causing sadness or sorrow or discontent)

    Sense 2

    Meaning:

    State characterized by emotions ranging from mild discontentment to deep griefplay

    Classified under:

    Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

    Hypernyms ("unhappiness" is a kind of...):

    emotional state; spirit (the state of a person's emotions (especially with regard to pleasure or dejection))

    Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "unhappiness"):

    embitterment (the state of being embittered)

    sadness; sorrow; sorrowfulness (the state of being sad)

    Antonym:

    happiness (state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy)

    Derivation:

    unhappy (experiencing or marked by or causing sadness or sorrow or discontent)

    Credits

     Context examples: 

    A disorder characterized by melancholic feelings of grief or unhappiness.

    (Depression, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)

    But, pray how could that which I spoke so many years ago, and at about five thousand leagues distance, in another reign, be applied to any of the Yahoos, who now are said to govern the herd; especially at a time when I little thought, or feared, the unhappiness of living under them?

    (Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

    Colonel Wallis said it, and Lady Russell saw it; but it had been no unhappiness to sour his mind, nor (she began pretty soon to suspect) to prevent his thinking of a second choice.

    (Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

    Of her unhappiness in marriage, she felt persuaded.

    (Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

    “It was the first unhappiness of my new life,” said Annie.

    (David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

    Concern for her unhappiness, and respect for her fortitude under it, must strengthen every attachment.

    (Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

    Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?

    (Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

    The unhappiness produced by the knowledge of that engagement had been a little put aside by Elizabeth Martin's calling at Mrs. Goddard's a few days afterwards.

    (Emma, by Jane Austen)

    In that case, your Grace, since you have yourself stated that any unhappiness in your married life was caused by his presence I would suggest that you make such amends as you can to the Duchess, and that you try to resume those relations which have been so unhappily interrupted.

    (The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

    She was sorry that Mr. Darcy should have delivered his sentiments in a manner so little suited to recommend them; but still more was she grieved for the unhappiness which her sister's refusal must have given him.

    (Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)


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