fortune

American  

[fawr-chuhn] / ˈfɔr tʃən /

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.

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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.

idioms

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

fortune British  

/ 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

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verb

1. archaic

   1. (tr) to endow with great wealth

   2. (intr) to happen by chance

fortune More Idioms  

1. see make a fortune.

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Other Word Forms

• fortuneless adjective

Etymology

Origin of fortune

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

Example Sentences

It gave multiple generations the assurance that we couldn’t easily be deported, unlike others we knew who didn’t have the good fortune to be born here.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2026

Behind the change in fortune is mainly the conflict in the Middle East.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026

Buffett noted that the Gates Foundation has enormous resources of $96 billion—the most of any foundation—largely from Bill Gates’ fortune from his Microsoft stock and other investments.

From Barron's • Mar. 31, 2026

And how much does a parent give a child so they can have a head start in life, but just enough for them to go out and seek their fortune independently?

From MarketWatch • Mar. 30, 2026

Before Mal could snatch her hand away, the fortune teller had seized it.

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell