1
as in agony
a situation or state that causes great suffering and unhappiness
the flood brought misery to the many hundreds whom it had made homeless
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in distress
a state of great suffering of body or mind
a medication that promises to provide greater relief to those living in chronic misery because of arthritis
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of misery
This week’s massive winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow on at least 19 states, including those like Texas and Tennessee that are less prepared to deal with the miseries of winter weather.
—
Amy Feldman, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
But apartheid brought immense unhappiness and misery to white South Africans, too.
—Eve Fairbanks, The Dial, 27 Jan. 2026
Jaydee Canvot’s handball to give away a penalty after a lengthy VAR check and then Adam Wharton’s late challenge on Moises Caicedo to earn him a second yellow card only served to compound the misery.
—Matt Woosnam, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2026
Christians in Sudan are facing daily hunger, misery and terror.
—Paul Tilsley, FOXNews.com, 24 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for misery
Amy Feldman, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
But apartheid brought immense unhappiness and misery to white South Africans, too.
—Eve Fairbanks, The Dial, 27 Jan. 2026
Jaydee Canvot’s handball to give away a penalty after a lengthy VAR check and then Adam Wharton’s late challenge on Moises Caicedo to earn him a second yellow card only served to compound the misery.
—Matt Woosnam, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2026
Christians in Sudan are facing daily hunger, misery and terror.
—Paul Tilsley, FOXNews.com, 24 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for misery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for misery
Noun
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Laocoön and His Sons, an exquisite marble sculpture of the legendary Trojan priest writhing in agony as he’s attacked by sea-serpents, was first unearthed in the early sixteenth-century, the only missing piece his right arm.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Feb. 2026
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Steven McDonald, a fallen hero of the department who channeled the agony of three devastating gunshot wounds into an enduring message of peace and forgiveness.—
Barry Williams,
New York Daily News,
10 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Office conversions to residential, especially in New York City, are also helping mitigate some of the distress.—
Diana Olick,
CNBC,
11 Feb. 2026
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Only four districts face significant fiscal distress — a decline from prior years.—
John Manly,
Mercury News,
10 Feb. 2026
Noun
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But Brontë’s novel is an eternal nightmare, one that has haunted readers for two centuries.—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
13 Feb. 2026
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This system, that supposed to take care of people and protect them, all of a sudden becomes a nightmare.—
Scott Roxborough,
HollywoodReporter,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Personality traits such as mental toughness, discipline, high pain tolerance and persistence may also lead to worsened eating disorder risk and behaviors in athletes.—
Emily Hemendinger,
The Conversation,
13 Feb. 2026
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And we are bound by ties of community, having attended the same summer camps, showed up at each other’s family celebrations, and felt each other’s pain.—
Lindsay Baach Friedmann,
Time,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Legal cases in Spain Concerns over Rodríguez Torres’ human-rights record have also reached Spanish courts, where a group of Venezuelan exiles filed a criminal complaint accusing him of torture and crimes against humanity.—
Antonio María Delgado,
Miami Herald,
10 Feb. 2026
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The city faces over 40 lawsuits alleging Guevara falsified evidence, extracted confessions through torture and lied to wrongfully put dozens of Chicagoans behind bars.—
Jake Sheridan,
Chicago Tribune,
9 Feb. 2026
Noun
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White’s dialogue is unsentimental but rife with anguish; Owen Teague and a seductive, destructive Abbey Lee give the pain its due.—
Brian Seibert,
New Yorker,
6 Feb. 2026
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His murder was met with fury and anguish.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Thompson’s death was greeted with horror and sympathy for the victim’s family but also with disturbingly widespread support for the assassin—fueled by outrage at insurers, whom many fault for blocking medical care.—
Chris Pope,
Washington Post,
10 Feb. 2026
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There is a melding of genres, of thriller, of coming of age, of horror, of action.—
Lexi Carson,
HollywoodReporter,
10 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Their main obstacle so far has been her discomfort with the hanging-with-our-exes dynamic during the Cabo San Lucas trip.—
KiMi Robinson,
USA Today,
11 Feb. 2026
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While not designed for snow days, the boot is engineered to reduce discomfort in rainy weather.—
Karla Rodriguez,
Footwear News,
11 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Misery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misery. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
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