as in bitterly
with feelings of bitterness or grief
an unhappily married couple being counseled by a professional
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Recent Examples of unhappily
Thelma, who is unhappily married to the controlling Darryl (Christopher McDonald), is seduced and betrayed by J.D., triggering the series of events that lead to the movie's iconic ending.
—
Ashley Hume, FOXNews.com, 1 Dec. 2025
Ibsen’s title character is a spoiled, headstrong young woman who, newly and unhappily married to a dull scholar, enacts a Machiavellian scheme to advance his career and her social standing, with catastrophic results.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2025
One of the youngest of the MacKenzie brood (and often seen with sister Janet), Jocasta Cameron is sometimes callously honest, perpetually jealous of the attention Ellen gets, and unhappily married to an old man.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 8 Aug. 2025
What appeared to be an opportunity to finally stick it to the team that had dashed their playoff hopes three straight years could end, again unhappily, on Thursday night in Edmonton.
—Jim Alexander, Daily News, 30 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unhappily
Ashley Hume, FOXNews.com, 1 Dec. 2025
Ibsen’s title character is a spoiled, headstrong young woman who, newly and unhappily married to a dull scholar, enacts a Machiavellian scheme to advance his career and her social standing, with catastrophic results.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2025
One of the youngest of the MacKenzie brood (and often seen with sister Janet), Jocasta Cameron is sometimes callously honest, perpetually jealous of the attention Ellen gets, and unhappily married to an old man.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 8 Aug. 2025
What appeared to be an opportunity to finally stick it to the team that had dashed their playoff hopes three straight years could end, again unhappily, on Thursday night in Edmonton.
—Jim Alexander, Daily News, 30 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unhappily
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unhappily
Adverb
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Since October last year, Russia has intensified its drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian energy system, knocking out electricity and heat and plunging millions of Ukrainians into long blackouts during bitterly cold winter temperatures.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
21 Feb. 2026
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In Alchevsk, a city in the Luhansk region, over half the homes have been without heat for two bitterly cold months.—
Yuras Karmanau,
Los Angeles Times,
20 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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That means some of the oddball stuff that had a moment toward the end of the Peak TV boom is falling away, sadly — no one’s greenlighting something as off kilter as The OA or Servant these days.—
Rick Porter,
HollywoodReporter,
21 Feb. 2026
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Some rooms and terraces overlook the gothic Wrigley and Tribune Buildings (now, sadly, condos), and Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago are a few blocks away.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
20 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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Tarun would tease her, and my mother would look sorrowfully toward Kavitha, as if the two of them now shared some womanly burden.—
Madhuri Vijay,
New Yorker,
16 Nov. 2025
Adverb
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Last year, a commitment to figuring out how to win each game’s evolving chess aided a run to 90 wins despite an offense that was painfully short of home run power.—
Tom Krasovic,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
21 Feb. 2026
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Viewers don’t need to be overly aware of the era’s politics to recognize the differences in worldview, circumstances and loyalties that painfully divide these sisters.—
Emily McClanathan,
Chicago Tribune,
20 Feb. 2026
Adverb
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For their part, Democratic leaders spoke mournfully of limits, of energy shortages, of national decline, of a crisis of confidence itself.—
Rosa Lyster,
Harpers Magazine,
30 Dec. 2025
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Based on the Dylan Thomas prose poem of the same name, published in 1952, the film lovingly and mournfully depicts the boyhood Christmastime of an old Welshman, tenderly and a tad mischievously embodied by Elliott.—
Sheldon Pearce,
New Yorker,
21 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unhappily.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unhappily. Accessed 26 Feb. 2026.
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