dire vs unfortunate

dire

adj
  • Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal. 

  • Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous. 

  • Bad in quality, awful, terrible. 

  • Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing. 

unfortunate

adj
  • marked or accompanied by or resulting in misfortune 

  • not favored by fortune 

noun
  • An unlucky person; one who has fallen into bad circumstances. 

How often have the words dire and unfortunate occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )