fortuitous
Americanadjective
-
happening or produced by chance; accidental.
a fortuitous encounter.
- Synonyms:
- incidental
-
a series of fortuitous events that advanced her career.
adjective
-
happening by chance, esp by a lucky chance; unplanned; accidental
Commonly Confused
Fortuitous has developed in sense from “happening by chance” to “happening by lucky chance” to simply “lucky, fortunate.” This development was probably influenced by the similarity of fortuitous to fortunate and perhaps to felicitous : A fortuitous late-night snowfall made for a day of great skiing. Many object to the use of fortuitous to mean simply “fortunate” and insist that it should be limited to its original sense of “accidental.” In modern standard use, however, fortuitous almost always carries the senses both of accident or chance and luck or fortune. It is infrequently used in its sense of “accidental” without the suggestion of good luck, and even less frequently in the sense “lucky” without at least a suggestion of accident or chance: A fortuitous encounter with a former schoolmate led to a new and successful career for the artist.
Related Words
See accidental.
Other Word Forms
- fortuitously adverb
- fortuitousness noun
- nonfortuitous adjective
- nonfortuitously adverb
- nonfortuitousness noun
- unfortuitous adjective
- unfortuitously adverb
- unfortuitousness noun
Etymology
Origin of fortuitous
First recorded in 1645–55; from Latin fortuitus, fortuītus, equivalent to fortu- (u-stem base, otherwise unattested, akin to fors, genitive fortis “chance, luck”) + -itus, -ītus adjective suffix (for formation gratuitous ); -ous
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.
Apple’s pocket music player largely owed its existence to one fortuitous meeting Apple executives had with the maker of a tiny hard drive that didn’t seem to have any practical application.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026
Sometimes, a swerving behind can be a fortuitous red flag, signaling hidden spinal defects before expensive MRIs are required.
From Slate • Feb. 22, 2026
Northampton's eighth try was more fortuitous than well-crafted, with Smith the happy recipient following a pass from Anthony Belleau that rebounded off the head of JJ van der Mescht.
From BBC • Jan. 3, 2026
To her, it’s fortuitous timing so many milestones have occurred in the past 12 months.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 17, 2025
Still, those notions of good fortune and chance have blended so much that dictionaries now accept a hybrid definition—something fortuitous is a happy accident.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
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.