Unfortunately

How to spell unfortunately

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce unfortunately

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unfortunately mean?

1. adverbUsed to express that something is regrettable or happened by bad luck.

Unfortunately in a sentence

• Unfortunately, the flight was cancelled because of the storm.

• The repair will, unfortunately, cost more than the original quote.

Where does unfortunately come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin fortuna, meaning 'luck' or 'chance', which was personified as the Roman goddess Fortuna who spun the wheel of fate. From fortuna came the adjective fortunatus, meaning 'blessed with good luck', and English took up 'fortunate' through Old French in the late Middle Ages. To this English added the native negative prefix 'un-' to make 'unfortunate', meaning 'unlucky', and then the adverb suffix '-ly' to give 'unfortunately'. The long chain of attached parts is exactly what makes the word a spelling puzzle: writers must remember the 'u' after 'fort', the silent 'e' before '-ly', and the doubled sequence that produces 'unfortunately' rather than the tempting but wrong 'unfortunatly'. The same fortuna root still surfaces in 'fortune', 'misfortune', and even 'fortuitous'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• fortun- (from Latin fortuna: luck, chance)
• -ate (adjective)
• -ly (adverb)