unpleasantness

noun un·pleas·ant·ness \ ˌən-ˈple-zᵊnt-nəs \

|Updated on: 7 May 2018

Definition of unpleasantness

1 : the quality or state of being unpleasant

2 : an unpleasant situation, experience, or event

Recent Examples of unpleasantness from the Web

This is a more traditional horror setting than the well-manicured mansions of Brookline, Massachusetts, and The Handmaid’s Tale doesn’t skimp on the visual unpleasantness.

— anna silman, The Cut, "The Most Traumatizing Moments From The Handmaid’s Tale Season Premiere," 25 Apr. 2018
In addition to human tempers, a Mars and Saturn meetup (with Mercury Rx in the mix) creates a state of general unpleasantness: traffic snarls, court summons, app crashes, looming deadlines, insecurity, and fears of failure.

— refinery29.com, "Your Horoscope This Week," 25 Mar. 2018
Mute contains some unwelcome passages of cruelty and homophobia, and a subplot revealing Duck to be a pedophile only adds to the unpleasantness.

— ben sachs, Chicago Reader, "Film / Small Screen The future is now in Duncan Jones's Mute," 16 Mar. 2018
And, like the ways in which the dominant American culture would subsequently respond to waves of immigrants from China, Southern and Eastern Europe and, more recently, Latin America, there was much unpleasantness.

— chris stirewalt, Fox News, "Twisting the dragon's tail," 8 Mar. 2018
There was conspicuously no mention in the Saudi news media of the unpleasantness of the earlier trip by Mr. Hariri, the leader of Lebanon’s main Sunni Muslim political coalition and a longtime Saudi ally.

— rick gladstone, New York Times, "Confined on His Last Trip to Saudi Arabia, Lebanon’s Leader Returns on Better Terms," 1 Mar. 2018
Mazur left coaching in 2009 after unpleasantness with players’ parents put her at risk.

— roy bragg, San Antonio Express-News, "Soccer coach teaching focus first, then soccer," 18 Feb. 2018
Aside from the unpleasantness of having something injected into your sinuses, the injections can come with side effects.

— korin miller, SELF, "Selma Blair Spent Her Valentine's Day Getting a Steroid Injection in Her Sinuses," 15 Feb. 2018
Now Nystad is in South Korea, trying to avoid a repeat of the unpleasantness four years ago.

— author: david segal, Anchorage Daily News, "Tough job: Norway’s ski wax chief is only noticed when he fails," 14 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'unpleasantness.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.