What's the difference between misfortune and tragedy?

Misfortune


Definition:

  • (n.) Bad fortune or luck; calamity; an evil accident; disaster; mishap; mischance.
  • (v. i.) To happen unluckily or unfortunately; to miscarry; to fail.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Other than failing to get a goal, I couldn’t ask for anything more.” From Lambert’s perspective there was an element of misfortune about the first and third goals, with Willian benefitting from handy ricochets on both occasions.
  • (2) Penises do no harm, they just sometimes have the misfortune to be attached to people who do.
  • (3) Recent changes at Bicêtre, the historic French institution, exemplify an old paradox in the care of the elderly: improvements which benefit part of a society can mean more misfortunes for others.
  • (4) The bluefin tuna, which has been endangered for several years and has the misfortune to be prized by Japanese sushi lovers, has suffered a catastrophic decline in stocks in the Northern Pacific Ocean, of more than 96%, according to research published on Wednesday.
  • (5) Last July Swatis might have been forgiven for thinking their misfortune was over.
  • (6) And it left him more conscious than he might have been of the random way in which misfortune can knock lives off course.
  • (7) Taking pleasure at the misfortune of rivals is an instinct baked deeply into the character of many journalists.
  • (8) There was an element of misfortune from our point of view about both but it would have been easy to think things weren’t going our way so I’m really pleased with the way we responded.
  • (9) That’s something which I personally added to a situation that I had experienced, because it seemed to me that one could easily die of one’s misfortunes and the things that depress, deflate one.
  • (10) Liz Truss now has the misfortune to inherit the operational disaster that is the direct result of these continued budget reductions and wild swings in government policy.
  • (11) I am satisfied with what I saw, especially after we had this misfortune to concede an own goal in the first couple of minutes.
  • (12) He smiled warmly on his dustjackets, as a very wealthy, very successful author should, but admitted that he was "preoccupied with death, disease and misfortune".
  • (13) She was objecting to people who used society as an excuse for ignoring their own responsibilities, as when they complain that society shouldn't allow a particular misfortune, while doing nothing to make things better.
  • (14) The emergence of such a disturbing trend is just one example of the many ways that the grim economic times are impacting on demand for care services – in this instance, with innocent children apparently being blamed for family misfortunes.
  • (15) It was conjectured that subjects in the positive condition were annoyed by the disabled person's display of "normal" characteristics, whereas in the negative condition they sympathetically accepted the disabled person's inadequacies as befitting a victim of severe misfortune.
  • (16) To lose one cabinet minister, Jacqui Smith, may be regarded as a misfortune.
  • (17) It has even called in Buddhist monks to conduct religious rites to get rid of misfortune, hoping to dispel staff anxieties.
  • (18) Adding insult to injury, we have to deal with what feels like the entire country blaming us for our misfortune.
  • (19) Lesions of the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee are very frequent misfortune and the results of their suture being insufficient yet, made us to explore the possibility to replace the damaged ligament with the fascia lata as an autologous transplant.
  • (20) Knowledge of how these societies try to prevent and cure illness and misfortune would be a preliminary condition for public health programs.

Tragedy


Definition:

  • (n.) A dramatic poem, composed in elevated style, representing a signal action performed by some person or persons, and having a fatal issue; that species of drama which represents the sad or terrible phases of character and life.
  • (n.) A fatal and mournful event; any event in which human lives are lost by human violence, more especially by unauthorized violence.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Her story is an incredible tale of triumph over tragedy: a tormented childhood during China's Cultural Revolution, detention and forced exile after exposing female infanticide – then glittering success as the head of a major US technology firm.
  • (2) It is a tragedy that he abandoned Iraq, sacrificing the gains secured by American blood and treasure.
  • (3) The lesson, spelled out by Oak Creek's mayor, Steve Saffidi, was that it shouldn't have taken a tragedy for Sikhs, or anyone else, to find acceptance.
  • (4) Obama is expected to offer personal condolences to his counterpart Park Geun-Hye over the tragedy, but the South's unpredictable northern neighbour is set to dominate the agenda.
  • (5) The Australian prime minister and the Russian president discussed the Malaysia Airlines tragedy during a 15-minute meeting on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit on Tuesday.
  • (6) The second tragedy to strike Jeremy was the death of his wife Caroline.
  • (7) Shavit’s new book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel , has received plaudits from the cream of the liberal, American, political elite.
  • (8) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Global trade unions called the collapse ‘mass industrial homicide’, while Vogue magazine described it as ‘tragedy on an epic scale’.
  • (9) The deputy prime minister branded the treatment meted out to the four-year-old by his mother, Magdelena Luczak, and stepfather, Mariusz Krezolek, as evil and vile, but suggested it was up to the whole of society to stop such tragedies.
  • (10) Senator Edward Kennedy lived his life precisely at the crossroads of all that he encountered – at the intersection of statesmanship, of history, of moral purpose, of tragedy, of compromise.
  • (11) It’s a huge, huge tragedy.” Kortney Moore, 18, said she was in a writing class when a shot came through the window and hit the teacher in the head.
  • (12) Tragedy was averted because there was a little delay as the prayers did not commence in earnest and the bomb strapped to the body of the girl went off and killed her,” he added.
  • (13) In a therapeutic tragedy perhaps even more widespread than the thalidomide disaster, untold lives were lost between 1949 and 1958 through the administration of inappropriate doses of chloramphenicol to newborn infants.
  • (14) It comes two years after the BSC stripped another Vedanta subsidiary of a safety award after the Observer drew its attention to the firm's involvement in one of the worst industrial tragedies in India's recent history.
  • (15) A s the protests in Turkey continue , spare a thought for the man whose personal tragedy few have the grace to acknowledge – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
  • (16) During his visit to Europe he did not speak at length on the subject of the shooting, but seemed more willing than Giuliani to distance the Dallas tragedy from the Black Lives Matter movement.
  • (17) But obviously if people have been injured or indeed killed that is a tragedy and our sympathies are with the victims and their families.” He added: “We never condone violence – whatever the cause.
  • (18) Sue Capon, who runs Brokerswood country park, said everyone was still coming to terms with the tragedy.
  • (19) They have taken a series of safety measures over the past decade aimed at preventing crowd crushes after tragedies such as the stampede in 2006, which resulted in 350 deaths, a building collapse in the same year which killed 76 and a stampede that killed more than 200 people in 2004.
  • (20) But the tragedy in Scotland is a reminder that public confidence – and even lives – are on the line too.