misfortune
/mɪsˈfɔɹt͡ʃən/noun
misfortune is spelled M-I-S-F-O-R-T-U-N-E: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 2.4 times per million words in written English, the 17,587th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, misfortune means “Synonym of bad luck” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of misfortune is misfortunes.
How many letters and syllables are in misfortune?
| Letters | 10: M-I-S-F-O-R-T-U-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.4 times per million words; the 17,587th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is misfortune?
Misfortune appears 2.4 times per million words in written English, the 17,587th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce misfortune?
- US /mɪsˈfɔɹt͡ʃən/
- UK /mɪsˈfɔːtʃuːn/
Misfortune has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-misfortune.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of misfortune
- misfortunes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does misfortune mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Synonym of bad luck.
The worst tour I have ever had the misfortune to experience.
- 2
An instance of bad luck, an undesirable event such as an accident.
(obsolete)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Misfortune in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense an instance of bad luck, an undesirable event such as an accident:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mésaventure, malheur |
| German | Unglück, Unfall, Unheil, Mißgeschick, Missgeschick |
| Portuguese | desgraça, infortúnio, adversidade, desventura |
| Spanish | desgracia, infortunio, desventura, adversidad |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does misfortune come from?
From mis- + fortune.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).