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View synonyms for

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: , , , ,

  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:

    ever 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: ,

  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

/ ˈɔːʃə /

noun

  1. an amount of wealth or material prosperity, esp, when unqualified, a great amount
  2. small fortune
    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
“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

verb

  1. archaic.
    1. tr to endow with great wealth
    2. intr to happen by 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
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Derived Forms

  • ˈڴǰٳܲԱ, adjective
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Other Word Forms

  • ڴǰtܲԱ· adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of fortune1

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

Origin of fortune1

C13: from Old French, from Latin ڴǰūԲ , from fors chance
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Idioms and Phrases

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

More idioms and phrases containing fortune

see make a fortune .
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

A basketball program can flip from perennial losers to winners more easily than football because it can take only a few standout players to change fortunes.

From

Trump, meanwhile, has claimed without evidence that Democrats are "paying a fortune" to disrupt town halls.

From

But the following caveat must always apply when assessing Donald Trump and his political fortunes: He has repeatedly broken the limitations, expectations, and force of the “conventional wisdom.”

From

The two Galaxy defenders and the three women players have had different fortunes this season.

From

He seems to be a little more prey to the twisting fortunes of life.

From

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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.

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