unfortunately

comparative more unfortunately · superlative most unfortunately

1. Happening through bad luck, or because of some unfortunate event.

   He unfortunately placed his hand on a loose brick.

   1 more example

   There were an unfortunately large number of misprints.

   Synonyms: unluckily

2. Used (as a parenthetical word, often a sentence adverb) to express disappointment, compassion, sorrow, regret, or grief.

   The houses which burned down could have been saved. Unfortunately, the fire truck had broken down on the way.

   5 more examples

   Unfortunately, the uproar awoke Mr. Jones, who sprang out of bed, making sure that there was a fox in the yard.

   1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC

   Unfortunately, even in the palmiest days of the old Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway Company, passengers were few and far between at Troutbeck, and since the advent of the motor bus road services they are rarer than ever, and never likely to increase.

   1951 October, “Notes and News: The Harmonium at Troutbeck”, in Railway Magazine, page 709

   Informal techniques, if properly written, can be quite readable and comprehensible; unfortunately, it is easy to leave unsaid details that must be specified, or to misgeneralise and produce inconsistencies.

   1989, Hendrik J. Boom, Claus Bendix Nielsen, Andrew D. McGettrick, Peter D. Mosses, Charles Rattray, Robert D. Tennent, David A. Watt, “A view of formal semantics”, in Computer standards & Interfaces, volume 9, number 1

   Do we know how kinky practices began? Do we know who the first kinky people were? Well, no. How about the first kinky sex device? Or the first person to enjoy a good spanking? Unfortunately, no again.

   2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “The murky world from whence it all came” (chapter 2), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 32

   The thing he unfortunately doesn't recognise is there is an 800-pound gorilla when it comes to major American motor sports. The 800-pound gorilla is Nascar.

   2014 February 26, Eddie Gossage, quotee, “Bernie Ecclestone dismisses Nascar objection to US Grand Prix date clash”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2014

   Synonyms: alas, regrettably, sadly, sad to say