unpropitious
adjective
un·pro·pi·tious
ˌən-prə-ˈpi-shəs 
: not likely to have or produce a good result : not favorable or advantageous : not propitious
an unpropitious time
Jasper could not have selected a more unpropitious moment for his cause.—
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
unpropitiously
adverb
Examples of unpropitious in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Handing the baton to Harris at this unpropitious time for Democrats is like Napoleon’s handing off his military command to Marshal Ney to conduct the disastrous French retreat from Moscow in 1812, featuring 500,000 French casualties.
—Armstrong Williams, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2024
Here are a handful of quick Thesaurus pulls to help paint a picture of how the unit played: unpropitious, cataclysmic, demoralizing, execrable.
—Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2023
The exhausted refugees are greeted by a functionary of the Relief Committee with the unpropitious nickname Statistics Babu.
—Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 26 Dec. 2022
That will be an unpropitious setting for launching a network: if the teams are unclear on the goal, the risk of confusion is considerable.
—Steve Denning, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2021
JoyFish sits in a strip mall in an unpropitious space that has seen several restaurants come and go.
—Tan Vinh, The Seattle Times, 11 July 2017
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Armstrong Williams, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2024
Here are a handful of quick Thesaurus pulls to help paint a picture of how the unit played: unpropitious, cataclysmic, demoralizing, execrable.
—Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY, 9 Jan. 2023
The exhausted refugees are greeted by a functionary of the Relief Committee with the unpropitious nickname Statistics Babu.
—Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 26 Dec. 2022
That will be an unpropitious setting for launching a network: if the teams are unclear on the goal, the risk of confusion is considerable.
—Steve Denning, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2021
JoyFish sits in a strip mall in an unpropitious space that has seen several restaurants come and go.
—Tan Vinh, The Seattle Times, 11 July 2017
Cite this Entry
“Unpropitious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unpropitious. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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