fortune

[fawr-chuhn]

noun

1. position in life as determined by wealth.

   It's not easy to make one's fortune from humble beginnings.

2. wealth or riches.

   He lost a small fortune in bad investments.

3. great wealth; ample stock of money, property, and the like.

   Those gems are worth a fortune.

4. chance; luck.

   They each had the bad fortune to marry the wrong person.

   Synonyms: karma, kismet, providence, destiny, fate

5. fortunes. things that happen or are to happen to a person in their life.

   Her charitable spirit stayed with her even as her fortunes changed with marriage.

6. fate; lot; destiny.

   Whatever my fortune may be, my faith will guide me.

7. Fortune. chance personified, commonly regarded as a mythical being distributing arbitrarily or capriciously the lots of life.

   Perhaps Fortune will smile on our venture.

   Synonyms: Lady Luck, Moira

8. good luck; success; prosperity.

   The family was blessed by fortune.

9. Archaic.,  a wealthy woman; an heiress.

verb (used with object)

fortuned, fortuning 

1. Archaic.,  to endow (someone or something) with a fortune.

verb (used without object)

fortuned, fortuning 

1. Archaic.,  to chance or happen; come by chance.

fortune

/ ˈfɔːtʃən /

noun

1. an amount of wealth or material prosperity, esp, when unqualified, a great amount

2. a large sum of money

3. a power or force, often personalized, regarded as being responsible for human affairs; chance

4. luck, esp when favourable

5. (often plural) a person's lot or destiny

verb

1. archaic

   1. (tr) to endow with great wealth

   2. (intr) to happen by chance

Other Word Forms

• fortuneless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of fortune¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin fortūna “chance, luck, fortune,” derivative of fort- (stem of fors ) “chance”

Word History and Origins

Origin of fortune¹

C13: from Old French, from Latin fortūna , from fors chance

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. tell someone's fortune, to profess to inform someone of future events in their own life; foretell.

see make a fortune.

Example Sentences

In turn, that could boost the company’s fortunes long term, since it can market to those customers through the app beyond the game-playing period.

Read more on MarketWatch

It was 40 years ago in 1985 when a freshman running back named Russell White enrolled at Crespi and changed the fortunes of the football program.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

California’s wine boom changed the fortunes of its farmers and land, too.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But it doesn’t seem coincidental that gold’s reversal of fortune in this century has followed global central banks’ preference for the metal over U.S.

Read more on Barron's

That's a big call and, perhaps, it's Townsend making himself a hostage to fortune.

Read more on BBC