fortune

[ fawr-chuhn ]

/ ˈfɔr tʃən /

|||

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR fortune ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

position in life as determined by wealth: to make one's fortune.

wealth or riches: to lose a small fortune in bad investments.

great wealth; ample stock of money, property, and the like: to be worth a fortune.

chance; luck: They each had the bad fortune to marry the wrong person.

fortunes. things that happen or are to happen to a person in his or her life.

fate; lot; destiny: whatever my fortune may be.

(initial capital letter) chance personified, commonly regarded as a mythical being distributing arbitrarily or capriciously the lots of life: Perhaps Fortune will smile on our venture.

good luck; success; prosperity: a family blessed by fortune.

Archaic. a wealthy woman; an heiress.

verb (used with object), for·tuned, for·tun·ing.

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

verb (used without object), for·tuned, for·tun·ing.

Archaic. to chance or happen; come by chance.

Nearby words

fortuitous, fortuity, fortuna, fortunate, fortunately, fortune, fortune cookie, fortune five hundred, fortune hunter, fortune-hunter, fortune-teller

Idioms

tell someone's fortune, to profess to inform someone of future events in his or her own life; foretell.

Origin of fortune

1250–1300; Middle English < Old French < Latin fortūna chance, luck, fortune, derivative of fort- (stem of fors) chance

SYNONYMS FOR fortune

4 fate, destiny, providence; kismet, karma.

7 Moira; Lady Luck.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR fortune ON THESAURUS.COM

Related forms

for·tune·less, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fortune

Stanley Richards, Senior Vice President of the Fortune Society, gave a tour along with a few residents.
His First Day Out Of Jail After 40 Years: Adjusting To Life Outside|Justin Rohrlich|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The building used to be an all-girls school, and when it was initially purchased by Fortune it was dilapidated.
His First Day Out Of Jail After 40 Years: Adjusting To Life Outside|Justin Rohrlich|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“I suppose she'll want a fortune as well,” he says, looking at me as if I were Liv Ullmann's agent.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days|David Freeman|December 13, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The city became a Mecca for hordes of hipsters and creative types as well as young people seeking their fortune in finance.
Eric Garner Was Just a Number to Them|Michael Daly|December 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST

According to lore, 145 of these original soldiers of fortune either fled battle or were captured and settled in the area.
The Chinese Town Descended From Romans?|Nina Strochlic|December 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Broken in health and in fortune, he went to Colorado in 1879, where he remained seven years.
Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847-1865|Ward Hill Lamon
If they should change places, fortune would change with them.
The Oxford Book of American Essays|Various
It was a common belief on that street that his fortune was stuffed away in some of the threadbare cushions.
Travelers Five Along Life's Highway|Annie Fellows Johnston
Agreement can make its own fortune, and need not wait to be endowed.
History of American Socialisms|John Humphrey Noyes
How fatal then, how tormenting, how intolerable, must her reverse of fortune be!
The Adventures of Roderick Random|Tobias Smollett

British Dictionary definitions for fortune

fortune

/ (ˈfɔːtʃən) /

noun

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

small fortune a large sum of money

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

luck, esp when favourable

(often plural) a person's lot or destiny

verb

archaic

(tr) to endow with great wealth
(intr) to happen by chance

Derived Forms

fortuneless, adjective

Word Origin for fortune

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Idioms and Phrases with fortune

fortune

see make a fortune.