What does misery mean?
Word: Misery
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Misery means great sadness or suffering.
Synonyms: sadness, sorrow, suffering
Antonyms: joy
How do you spell misery?
Syllables: mis - er - y
Tricky part: There is a single s, even though the start sounds like miss, so missery is the slip to avoid.
Watch out for: missery, misry, mizery
Memory tip: Picture one lonely s standing by itself in the rain: misery has just the one s.
Idioms and Phrases
- put someone out of their misery: To end someone's worry by telling them what they are waiting to hear. Example: "Ma put us out of our misery and told us our exam marks."
Misery in a sentence
Example 1: The flood brought misery to thousands of families.
Example 2: A bad toothache can be pure misery.
Example 3: The lost puppy looked full of misery until we found its owner.
Fun Fact
Misery reached English from Old French in the 1300s, and the French word came from Latin miser, 'wretched'. Miserable belongs to the same family.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
misery
a) happiness
b) anger
c) grief
d) pain
Show answer
a) happiness. Misery and happiness sit at opposite ends of how you can feel.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
remisy
a) miesry
b) misrey
c) msiery
d) misery
Show answer
d) misery. Six letters, one s: start with m-i-s.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The long drought caused great misary in the village.
a) drought
b) village
c) great
d) misary
Show answer
d) misary. Misary has an a where misery has an e.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) worried
b) miserie
c) tearful
d) trouble
Show answer
b) miserie. Trouble, worried and tearful are fine; misery ends in a plain y.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Someone whose life is full of misery is ____.
a) very rich
b) often late
c) always busy
d) deeply unhappy
Show answer
d) deeply unhappy
2. What could cause misery for a family?
a) a trip to the fair
b) losing a much-loved pet
c) winning a school prize
d) a day at the beach
Show answer
b) losing a much-loved pet
