as in unfortunate
having, prone to, or marked by bad luck
the hapless motorist had barely paid his bill and driven away from the body shop when a truck sideswiped his car
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hapless
But Faris and Hall, whose hapless BFFs Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks had by then become its A-list faces, continued with Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4 alone.
—
Entertainment Weekly, 2 June 2026
Among the historic attractions dotting Route 66, there may be none more hapless and ill fated as the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia.
—Assistant Editor, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2026
Narayan’s bittersweet love story about a hapless painter’s crush on an emotionally distant social worker has lost none of its humor, relevance, or unconventionality.
—The Week Us, TheWeek, 27 May 2026
That lucky break means Katie’s cute but hapless husband, Nate Wilcox (Bargatze), suddenly has to step back from his role as Salesman of the Year at a local Toyota dealership, too.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 27 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for hapless
Entertainment Weekly, 2 June 2026
Among the historic attractions dotting Route 66, there may be none more hapless and ill fated as the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia.
—Assistant Editor, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2026
Narayan’s bittersweet love story about a hapless painter’s crush on an emotionally distant social worker has lost none of its humor, relevance, or unconventionality.
—The Week Us, TheWeek, 27 May 2026
That lucky break means Katie’s cute but hapless husband, Nate Wilcox (Bargatze), suddenly has to step back from his role as Salesman of the Year at a local Toyota dealership, too.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 27 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for hapless
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hapless
Adjective
-
So that was just an unfortunate situation, but everything’s OK.—
Zach Dean,
FOXNews.com,
12 June 2026
-
Getting into a dispute with your neighbor is an unfortunate but all-too-common predicament for many homeowners.—
Michele Laufik,
Martha Stewart,
11 June 2026
Adjective
-
The European Commission froze billions of euros in funds for Hungary in response to democratic backsliding led by Orbán, and concern lingers about the damage that can be done when one unhappy government insists on wielding its veto.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
15 June 2026
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Social media is making children unhappy and is designed to be addictive, Starmer said at a press conference.—
Elsa Ohlen,
CNBC,
15 June 2026
Adjective
-
Any one of those locations could have allowed the heat of reentry to burn through the aluminum alloy walls of the spacecraft, killing any luckless crew that may have been inside, in much the kind of reentry breakup that doomed the shuttle Columbia and its seven-person crew in 2003.—
Jeffrey Kluger,
Time,
11 Apr. 2026
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Vasyanovych plays Roman, a luckless director who’s out of work and trying to shoot his latest film in a country whose dwindling population is still traumatized by the war.—
Christopher Vourlias,
Variety,
6 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
This study marks the first to use that data to model climate as rising temperatures are expected to fuel more disastrous events, from marine heat waves that kill coral to droughts.—
Jenny Staletovich,
Sun Sentinel,
14 June 2026
-
The next two decades were mostly disastrous.—
Sean Gregory,
Time,
14 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hapless.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hapless. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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