Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The quality or condition of being infelicitous.
  • noun Something inappropriate or unpleasing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Lack of felicity or good fortune; unhappiness; misfortune; misery.
  • noun Unfavorableness; inappropriateness; inaptness: as, the infelicity of the occasion.
  • noun An inapt, unskilful, or imperfect mode of expression, or the expression itself: as, infelicities of style.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state or quality of being infelicitous; unhappiness; misery; wretchedness; misfortune; lack of suitableness or appropriateness.
  • noun That (as an act, word, expression, etc.) which is infelicitous.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The condition of being infelicitous
  • noun countable Something that is infelicitous or inappropriate

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun inappropriate and unpleasing manner or style (especially manner or style of expression)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English infelicite, from Latin īnfēlīcitās, from īnfēlīx, īnfēlīc-, unhappy : in-, not; see in– + fēlīx, happy; see dhē(i)- in Indo-European roots.]

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