Fortune
nounA large amount of money or wealth, or the chance events that shape someone's life.
How to spell fortune
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce fortune
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does fortune mean?
- nounA large amount of money or wealth, or the chance events that shape someone's life.
Fortune in a sentence
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She inherited a small fortune from her grandmother.
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The family made its fortune in the shipping trade.
Where does fortune come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word comes from the Latin fortuna, meaning 'chance' or 'luck', which the Romans personified as a goddess who turned a wheel to raise or ruin human lives. That noun was rooted in fors, simply 'chance' or 'what happens', and over time fortuna came to cover both good and bad turns of fate. English borrowed it through Old French fortune in the 1300s, where it carried the sense of destiny and the random favour of luck. The meaning then widened to include the wealth that lucky chance might bring, which is why we still speak of someone 'making a fortune'. The same root survives in 'fortunate' and 'misfortune', and the silent 'e' that ends the word is the usual fossil of its French route into English.
How the word is built
- fortun- (from Latin fortuna: chance, luck)
- -e (noun ending)
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