fortuitous
Syllables: for·tu·it·ous/fɔːˈtjuːɪtəs/US/foɹˈt(j)uətəs/
fortuitous adjective: happening by fortune or chance; accidental, coincidental.
Adjective
fortuitous (comparative more fortuitous, superlative most fortuitous)
- Happening by fortune or chance; accidental, coincidental.
- [I]f vve be not perverſe and vvillful, vve are to inferre that it [the tilt of the Earth's axis] vvas eſtabliſhed by a Principle that has in it Knovvledge and Counſell, not from a blind fortuitous jumbling of the parts of the Matter one againſt another, eſpecially having found before in ourſelves a...1653, Henry More, “The Universall Matter of the World be It Homogeneall or Heterogeneall, Self Mov’d or Resting of It Self, that It can Never be Contriv’d into that Order It is without the...
- [T]his concourſe of Atoms they being left vvithout a guide, it is a miracle above all apprehenſion, that they ſhould produce no inept Species of things, ſuch as ſhould of their ovvn nature have but three Leggs, and one Eye, […] But to elude the force of this Argument againſt the fortuitous...1653, Henry More, “That whether the Species of Things have been from All Eternity, or whether They Rose out of the Earth by Degrees in Time, the Frame of Them is such, that against All the Evasions...
- Synonyms:
- by accident, accidental, accidentary, adventitious, by the by, casual, causeless, chanceable, incidental, lippening
- Antonyms:
- nonfortuitous, unfortuitous
- Happening by good fortune or success; fortunate, lucky.
- And then he met John Dowsett, the great John Dowsett. The whole thing was fortuitous. This cannot be doubted.1910 October, Jack London, chapter I, in Burning Daylight, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, part II, page 128
- Admiral [Takeo] Kurita has no identification charts for escort carriers, and, so, assumes that the distant targets are fleet carriers. Commensurately, by scale, their escorts must either be battleships or cruisers. The Japanese forces therefore continue to load armor-piercing rounds, what will turn...2019 February 27, Drachinifel [pseudonym], “The Battle of Samar – Odds? What are Those?” (12:25 from the start), in YouTube, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022
- Happening independently of human control; uncontrollable.
- Synonyms:
- irresistible
fortuitous meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
fortuitous in Tamil
- சந்தர்ப்பவசமாக, தற்செயலாக நேர்ந்த, எதிர்பாராமல் நிகழ்ந்த
fortuitous in Bengali
- আকস্মিকভাবে সৌভাগ্যজনক, অনাকাঙ্ক্ষিত কিন্তু শুভ
fortuitous in Malayalam
- unanticipated, chance, adventitious
- യാദൃച്ഛികമായ, ആക്സ്മാത്തായ, അവിചാരിതമായ, അചിന്തിതമായ, കാകതാലീയമായ, ആകസ്മികമായി സംഭവിക്കുന്ന
- fortunate, lucky, fluky
- ദെെവാധീനമായ, ദെെവായത്തമായ, ദെെവഘതിതമായ, ഭാഗ്യവശാലുള്ള, ഭാഗ്യകരമായ, ഭാഗ്യത്താൽ നേടിയ
fortuitous in Kannada
- ಎದುರುನೋಡದ, ಆಕಸ್ಮಿಕವಾದ, ಅನಿರೀಕ್ಷಿತವಾದ, ಅನುದ್ದಿಷ್ಟ, ಅದೃಷ್ಟದ
More languagesFewer languages
- fortuitous in Vietnamese
- ngẫu nhiên, tình cờ, may mắn
Examples of fortuitous in a sentence
- [D]uring the ten days of their stay at Hartfield it was not to be expected—she did not herself expect—that any thing beyond occasional, fortuitous assistance could be afforded by her to the lovers.1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for...
- Was it love, she wondered, or a mere fortuitous combination of happy thoughts and sensations?1905, Edith Wharton, chapter VI, in The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 102:
- The Japanese forces therefore continue to load armor-piercing rounds, what will turn out to be a very fortuitous mistake for their targets for as long as it lasts.2019 February 27, Drachinifel [pseudonym], “The Battle of Samar – Odds? What are Those?” (12:25 from the start), in YouTube, archived from...
Synonyms of fortuitous
- by accident
- accidental
- adventitious
- by the by
- casual
- causeless
- incidental
- lippening
- occasional
- random
15 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of fortuitous
| comparative | more fortuitous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most fortuitous |
Origin of fortuitous
Learned borrowing from Latin fortuītus (“happening by chance, accidental, random, fortuitous”), from *fortu- (“chance, fortune, luck”) + -ītus (suffix forming adjectives). *Fortu- is thought to be from *fortus, from fors (“chance, luck”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns). Doublet of fortuity.
Words formed from fortuitous
Questions about fortuitous
- What does fortuitous mean?
- Fortuitous means happening by fortune or chance; accidental, coincidental.
- What is fortuitous in Tamil?
- Fortuitous in Tamil is சந்தர்ப்பவசமாக, தற்செயலாக நேர்ந்த, எதிர்பாராமல் நிகழ்ந்த. See Fortuitous meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use fortuitous in a sentence?
- [D]uring the ten days of their stay at Hartfield it was not to be expected—she did not herself expect—that any thing beyond occasional, fortuitous assistance could be afforded by her to the lovers.
- What part of speech is fortuitous?
- Fortuitous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce fortuitous?
- Fortuitous is pronounced /fɔːˈtjuːɪtəs/ (UK).
Words near fortuitous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fortuitous (page history and authors); fortuitous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fortuitous (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fortuitous (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); fortuitous (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fortuitous.wav.
Cite this entry: “fortuitous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fortuitous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.