felicitous
Americanadjective
-
well-suited for the occasion, as an action, manner, or expression; apt; appropriate.
The chairman's felicitous anecdote set everyone at ease.
-
having a special ability for suitable manner or expression, as a person.
adjective
-
well-chosen; apt
-
possessing an agreeable style
-
producing or marked by happiness
Commonly Confused
See fortuitous.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of felicitous
First recorded in 1725–35; felicit(y) + -ous
Explanation
Felicitous describes something that's pleasantly apt or fitting. Felicitous words you write on your friend's birthday card are the ones that perfectly suit the occasion and make her happy when she reads them. Felicitous can mean "appropriate," but it also describes something that's lucky. When you plan a trip to the amusement park and it turns out that the sun is shining, that’s felicitous. If you need to mail a package by a certain date and you make it to the post office just in time, that’s also felicitous. The Latin root of felicitous is felix, "happy or lucky."
Vocabulary lists containing felicitous
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Joy Luck Club
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A Single Shard
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Felicitous music by the Strauss family in sleek readings by Karajan and the Berliners.
From Time Magazine Archive
Felicitous thoughts," he tells us, "occur by hundreds to every woman of in- tellect.
From The Unexpurgated Case Against Woman Suffrage by Wright, Almroth
Felicitous association of objects not usually connected, so as to produce a pleasant surprise.’
From A Bookful of Girls by Fuller, Anna
Felicitous strokes like that in which he says, "No tree has so fair a bole and so handsome an instep as the birch," are rare.
From The Last Harvest by Burroughs, John
Felicitous in style and simple enough in plot, it is powerfully vivid and dramatic, and well sustains the interest throughout....
From The King of Schnorrers Grotesques and Fantasies by Zangwill, Israel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
