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
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.
What he called “the felicitous expression of ideas” mattered more to him than academic point-scoring.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 30, 2025
A win for this film would be nothing less than felicitous in a post-#MeToo Hollywood.
From Salon • Mar. 11, 2023
One fellow went so far as to block the good people at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation when they were calling with the most felicitous news imaginable.
From Washington Post • Oct. 12, 2022
Eleven time zones away at Pebble Beach, that felicitous meeting of land and sea, Monahan professes not to be overly concerned with what’s going on in Saudi Arabia.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 1, 2022
Pope Julius II acted impetuously in all his affairs, and he found the times and circumstances so suitable to this method of procedure that he always achieved felicitous results.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
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.
