adjective
- Very unhappy; full of misery.
- usage: "he felt depressed and miserable"; "a message of hope for suffering humanity"; "wretched prisoners huddled in stinking cages"
- Deserving or inciting pity.
- usage: "a hapless victim"; "miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "Oh, you poor thing"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life"
- Of the most contemptible kind.
- usage: "abject cowardice"; "a low stunt to pull"; "a low-down sneak"; "his miserable treatment of his family"; "You miserable skunk"; "a scummy rabble"; "a scurvy trick"
- Of very poor quality or condition.
- usage: "deplorable housing conditions in the inner city"; "woeful treatment of the accused"; "woeful errors of judgment"
- synonyms: deplorable, execrable, woeful, wretched
- Characterized by physical misery.
- usage: "a wet miserable weekend"; "spent a wretched night on the floor"
- synonyms: wretched
- Contemptibly small in amount.
- usage: "a measly tip"; "the company donated a miserable $100 for flood relief"; "a paltry wage"; "almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans"
WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
| APA | WordNet. (2010). miserable. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/miserable/definitions/1178507 |
| Chicago | WordNet. 2010. "miserable" http://smartdefine.org/miserable/definitions/1178507 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | WordNet 2010, miserable, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/miserable/definitions/1178507>. |
| MLA | WordNet. "miserable" 23 October 2010. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/miserable/definitions/1178507> |