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
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
These checks on presidential powers have not only been heeded by the men in power, however unhappily, but have become part of case law.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 4 June 2025
Some lived unhappily at the club, unable to maximise their talent or contribute to success.
—Carl Anka, New York Times, 16 May 2025
Moscow, Washington, and, however unhappily, Kyiv know that NATO membership is out of Ukraine’s reach.
—The Editors, National Review, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unhappily
Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 8 Aug. 2025
These checks on presidential powers have not only been heeded by the men in power, however unhappily, but have become part of case law.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 4 June 2025
Some lived unhappily at the club, unable to maximise their talent or contribute to success.
—Carl Anka, New York Times, 16 May 2025
Moscow, Washington, and, however unhappily, Kyiv know that NATO membership is out of Ukraine’s reach.
—The Editors, National Review, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unhappily
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unhappily
Adverb
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Its inhabitants were left without light or heat during a bitterly cold polar vortex, with temperatures as low as 2 degrees Fahrenheit.—
Rachel Treisman,
NPR,
5 Jan. 2026
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Hasina was bitterly criticized by both her opponents and independent critics for sending Zia to jail.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
30 Dec. 2025
Adverb
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This should be, but sadly will probably not be, the line that shouldn’t have been crossed.—
Voice of the People,
New York Daily News,
7 Jan. 2026
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Discovering the chemicals responsible for smoke taint is, sadly, only half the battle.—
Nicola Twilley,
New Yorker,
5 Jan. 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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Inspired by a 2017 Los Angeles Time article about a San Gabriel Valley tragedy, director Eric Lin’s heartbreaking feature painfully reminds us of the need to get help and how mental health issues within Asian cultures need to be destigmatized.—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
8 Jan. 2026
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By Sunday, he was gone, a mercifully swift ending to painfully slow decline.—
Scott Maxwell,
The Orlando Sentinel,
8 Jan. 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 12 Jan. 2026.
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