miserable

See also misérable

English

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmɪzrəˌbəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

miserable (comparative miserabler or more miserable, superlative miserablest or most miserable)

1. In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor.
   • (Can we date this quote?) George Bernard Shaw

     The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupation.

2. Very bad (at something); unskilled, incompetent.

   He's O.K. at some sports, like tennis, but he's just miserable at football.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "miserable" is often applied: life, condition, state, situation, day, time, creature, person, child, failure, place, world, season, year, week, experience, feeling, work, town, city, wage, job, case, excuse, dog.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:unhappy
• See also Wikisaurus:bad

Derived terms

• miserablism
• miserabilism
• miserablist
• miserabilist

Translations

in a state of misery

• Arabic: بائس (ar) (bāʾis)
• Armenian: դժբախտ (hy) (džbaxt)
• Catalan: trist (ca) m, desgraciat (ca) m. miserable (ca) m and f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 悲慘 (cmn), 悲惨 (cmn) (bēicǎn), 慘 (cmn), 惨 (cmn) (cǎn), 凄慘 (cmn), 凄惨 (cmn) (qīcǎn)

• Czech: nešťastný (cs), bědný (cs)
• French: misérable (fr)
• German: erbärmlich (de), jämmerlich (de), miserabel (de)
• Greek: άθλιος (el) (áthlios) m, ελεεινός (el) (eleeinós) m, αξιοθρήνητος (el) (axiothrínitos) m, πενιχρός (el) (penichrós) m

• Hungarian: nyomorult (hu)
• Japanese: 惨めな (ja) (みじめな, mijime na), 悲惨な (ja) (ひさんな, hisan na)
• Jèrriais: mînséthabl'ye
• Korean: 불행한 상황 (ko)
• Maori: tureikura (mi)
• Old English: earm (ang)
• Romanian: mizerabil m and n, nenorocit (ro)
• Russian: несчастный (ru) (nesčástnyj), бедный (ru) (bédnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: brònach (gd)
• Spanish: miserable (es)

very bad (at)

• Czech: mizerný (cs) m
• German: miserabel (de)
• Greek: άθλιος (el) (áthlios) m, αξιοθρήνητος (el) (axiothrínitos) m

• Hungarian: gyatra (hu), pocsék (hu)
• Japanese: 下手な (ja) (へたな, heta na)
• Russian: неумелый (ru) (neumélyj)

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Catalan

Etymology

From Latin miserabilis.

Adjective

miserable m, f (masculine and feminine plural miserables)

1. miserable

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Spanish

Etymology

From Latin miserabilis.

Adjective

miserable m and f (plural miserables)

1. miserable
2. poor

Related terms

• mísero
• miseria