- intense unhappiness, discomfort, or suffering; wretchedness
- a cause of such unhappiness, discomfort, etc
- squalid or poverty-stricken conditions
- Brit informal a person who is habitually depressed: he is such a misery
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
mis•er•y /ˈmɪzəri/USA pronunciation
n., pl. -er•ies.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- wretched, unfortunate, or unhappy conditions: [uncountable]the misery he felt after his defeat.[countable]home and job miseries.
mis•er•y
(miz′ə rē),USA pronunciation n., pl. -er•ies.
- wretchedness of condition or circumstances.
- distress or suffering caused by need, privation, or poverty.
- great mental or emotional distress;
extreme unhappiness. - a cause or source of distress.
- Slang Terms[Older Use.]
- a pain:a misery in my left side.
- rheumatism.
- Often miseries. a case or period of despondency or gloom.
- Latin miseria, equivalent. to miser wretched + -ia -y3
- Middle English miserie 1325–75
- 1. tribulation, trial, suffering. 3. grief, anguish, woe, torment, desolation. See sorrow.
- 3. happiness.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
misery /ˈmɪzərɪ/ n ( pl -eries)
'misery' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
anguish
- bane
- calamity
- desolation
- King
- lead
- living death
- miserable
- misère
- plumb
- put on
- send
- severe
- solace
- suffering
- threat
- voiceless
- wail
- walk
- woe
- wrack
- wretched
- yammer
- adversity
- affliction
- bale
- bliss
- Cinderella
- commiserate
- compound
- crap
- den
- dystopia
- evil
- grief
- happiness
- hell
- ill
- joy
- merriment
- misery index
- outcast
- pain
- pitiful
- rapture
- torment
- wall-to-wall
- wince
- sore
- sorrow