as in wrongness
the quality or state of being unsuitable or unfitting
the infelicity of holiday decorations at a funeral home
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Recent Examples of infelicity
And that’s setting aside odd turns, factual infelicities and jokes that don’t land.
—
Mark Athitakis, Washington Post, 9 May 2023
There is the occasional infelicity in the book.
—William Fotheringham, WSJ, 16 July 2021
The Postcard is a somewhat strange book, not without the occasional infelicity of translation, almost experimental in its form.
—Lisa Wong MacAbasco, Vogue, 9 Jan. 2023
But the infelicities of the translation are of relatively minor concern.
—Mitchell Abidor, The New York Review of Books, 12 Feb. 2020
The usual infelicities of intergenerational living — different standards of kitchen cleanliness, for example — set me on an edge that felt unwarranted.
—Mathina Calliope, Longreads, 3 Dec. 2019
And any fair examination of his record in office shows that these infelicities aren’t really relevant to a just evaluation of his performance.
—Conrad Black, National Review, 11 Sep. 2019
The book suffers from some infelicities: Alexander the Great is shown with two blue eyes, though he is said to have had one blue and one hazel, like David Bowie ; also, the samurai Tomoe Gozen fought a horde of attackers, not a hoard.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2018
There were some slight infelicities of ensemble playing at the beginnings of the slow movements, but otherwise this was a performance that was eager to draw the listener into communion with Copland’s affirmative spirit.
—Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 Mar. 2018
Mark Athitakis, Washington Post, 9 May 2023
There is the occasional infelicity in the book.
—William Fotheringham, WSJ, 16 July 2021
The Postcard is a somewhat strange book, not without the occasional infelicity of translation, almost experimental in its form.
—Lisa Wong MacAbasco, Vogue, 9 Jan. 2023
But the infelicities of the translation are of relatively minor concern.
—Mitchell Abidor, The New York Review of Books, 12 Feb. 2020
The usual infelicities of intergenerational living — different standards of kitchen cleanliness, for example — set me on an edge that felt unwarranted.
—Mathina Calliope, Longreads, 3 Dec. 2019
And any fair examination of his record in office shows that these infelicities aren’t really relevant to a just evaluation of his performance.
—Conrad Black, National Review, 11 Sep. 2019
The book suffers from some infelicities: Alexander the Great is shown with two blue eyes, though he is said to have had one blue and one hazel, like David Bowie ; also, the samurai Tomoe Gozen fought a horde of attackers, not a hoard.
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 3 Aug. 2018
There were some slight infelicities of ensemble playing at the beginnings of the slow movements, but otherwise this was a performance that was eager to draw the listener into communion with Copland’s affirmative spirit.
—Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 Mar. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Infelicity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/infelicity. Accessed 4 Mar. 2025.
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