Fortunate
adjectiveBenefiting from good luck or favourable circumstances.
How to spell fortunate
9 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce fortunate
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does fortunate mean?
- adjectiveBenefiting from good luck or favourable circumstances.
Fortunate in a sentence
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She felt fortunate to have found a flat so close to her office.
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We were fortunate that the storm passed before the wedding began.
Where does fortunate come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This word traces back to the Latin fortunatus, meaning 'prospered' or 'blessed by luck', which was the past participle of fortunare, 'to make prosperous'. At its heart sits the noun fortuna, the Roman word for luck or chance, and indeed Fortuna was the goddess who turned her famous wheel to raise and ruin people at random. English took the adjective in during the late 1300s, when fortunatus passed into use to describe someone favoured by good luck. The same fortuna root gives us the everyday words fortune and unfortunate, which is useful to remember: the spelling keeps the whole noun fortune intact and simply trades the final e for -ate, so 'fortunate' is really just 'fortune' plus that adjective ending.
How the word is built
- fortun- (from Latin fortuna: luck, chance)
- -ate (adjective-forming suffix)
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