lucky
1 Americanadjective
-
luckier,
comparative
-
luckiest
superlative
-
having or marked by good luck; fortunate.
That was my lucky day.
- Synonyms:
- blessed
- Antonyms:
- unfortunate
-
happening fortunately.
a lucky accident.
-
bringing or foretelling good luck, or supposed to do so.
a lucky penny.
- Synonyms:
- favorable, propitious, auspicious
noun
-
luckies
plural
-
a familiar name applied to an elderly woman, especially a grandmother; granny.
-
a familiar name applied to a woman, as one's wife or a barmaid.
adjective
-
having or bringing good fortune
-
happening by chance, esp as desired
Usage
What are other ways to say lucky? Someone or something that is lucky has or is marked by good luck. How is lucky different from happy or fortunate? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of lucky1
First recorded in 1495–1505; luck + -y 1
Origin of lucky2
Explanation
When you're lucky, things work out well for you — you experience good fortune. If you're feeling lucky, it might be a good day to buy a lottery ticket or guess the number of jelly beans in a jar. Lucky people seem to have everything going for them, and your lucky charm (like a rabbit's foot or a four-leaf clover) seems to bring that kind of success in your direction. Some lucky things are happy coincidences: "How lucky that I ran into you this morning!" When you're envious of someone else's big break, you can say, "You lucky devil." Lucky and luck come from the Middle Dutch gheluc, "good fortune."
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.
See Examples For:
At the time, he was lucky to catch a fish as big as his palm.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2026
"I've always wanted to represent the Orchids and I was really lucky last year to make my debut in the Pacific Cup," Wagambie, a Parramatta team-mate of Albert, told ABC Pacific.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
If they get lucky, Tuyo covers the tab.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Being able to combine the three is something I feel very lucky about.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Why were some children lucky and loved wholly and constantly and others left to scramble for shards of affection?
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Even the beloveds, wonderfuls, luckies and so on were all Dones, and the awfuls were Not-Dooes.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Electrical engineer Luca Linhsen is one of the luckier ones -- she took up a job as a software consultant in Hamburg this month.
From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026
Kang survived, which made him luckier than others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
As McDermott said, “You control how hard you work, and the harder you work, the luckier you’re going to get.”
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 18, 2026
Still, as a state employee and a patron of one of Syria’s six state-owned banks, Elias was luckier than many others.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2025
On our third try, we were luckier and had a daughter whom we adored.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
It felt like the luckiest thing; I’ll never forget when Bill called me and said that I got it and I truly couldn’t believe it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
There is a small chance that whoever placed these bets was just the luckiest person in the world.
From Slate ● Jan. 6, 2026
“Palantir and Nvidia are the two luckiest companies on the planet,” he told Lewis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025
Only the luckiest, or best connected, among the accredited investors are invited to participate directly in the funding rounds where companies offer private shares to raise money—like the one OpenAI did earlier this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 13, 2025
He says, “God will think of something. Quit worrying. Isn’t it beautiful? Aren’t we the luckiest fools in the world?”
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
