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
Although Hemingway had been somewhat happily employed by the Toronto Star Weekly as a foreign correspondent since 1921, in 1923 he was unhappily transferred to feature writing for the Toronto Daily Star under the notorious Hindmarsh.
—
Emily Zarevich, JSTOR Daily, 6 Jan. 2025
One of them is another family friend, the unhappily married Naomi Shah, who at the psychologist’s 40th wedding-anniversary party takes an interest in Griffin that turns quickly, shockingly carnal, leading to a series of encounters in her Mercedes and elsewhere.
—Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2025
With that announcement, my memory raced back unhappily to the bad old days of J. Edgar Hoover — except in dramatic ways, Patel looks worse.
—Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 15 Dec. 2024
And while Americans have unhappily encountered other types of inflation in recent years — sky-high grocery prices have been credited with helping President-elect Donald Trump claim victory last month — health insurance can take on an even more personal edge, Thomas pointed out.
—Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 10 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for unhappily
Emily Zarevich, JSTOR Daily, 6 Jan. 2025
One of them is another family friend, the unhappily married Naomi Shah, who at the psychologist’s 40th wedding-anniversary party takes an interest in Griffin that turns quickly, shockingly carnal, leading to a series of encounters in her Mercedes and elsewhere.
—Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times, 5 Jan. 2025
With that announcement, my memory raced back unhappily to the bad old days of J. Edgar Hoover — except in dramatic ways, Patel looks worse.
—Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 15 Dec. 2024
And while Americans have unhappily encountered other types of inflation in recent years — sky-high grocery prices have been credited with helping President-elect Donald Trump claim victory last month — health insurance can take on an even more personal edge, Thomas pointed out.
—Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 10 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for unhappily
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unhappily
sadly
Adverb
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The leadership toxicity is sadly nothing new, though there’s one point in here about Bungie allegedly buying pricey penthouses for some higher tiers of management.—
Paul Tassi,
Forbes.com,
21 May 2025
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His gay life, sadly, is mostly a source of early misery and bitter feeling—a reminder of how recently, and how blessedly, homosexuality has been normalized.—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
19 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unhappily.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unhappily. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
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