Fortean

//ˈfɔː.tɪ.ən// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A follower or admirer of Charles Fort.

    "Stories about alligators in the sewers have been of particular interest, however, to Forteans (followers of Charles Fort). Forteans contend that many happenings derided by the official science of the Western world (falls of frogs from clear skies, the appearance of lake monsters, mystery beasts and so on) are genuine occurrences."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of Fortean. alt-of, alternative
  3. 3
    One who investigates anomalous phenomena.

    "Not long afterwards, Fortean writer Paul Harris contacted me concerning this putative sea serpent, kindly supplying me with a couple of newspaper cuttings […] that contained photos of its remains, plus various additional details that he had gathered during his own investigation of this case."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to anomalous phenomena.

    "Ufology is a somewhat Fortean subject."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of Fortean. alt-of, alternative

    "Characters such as "Jack Brown" [supposedly a UFO investigator] have been annoying and frightening people for centuries. In earlier ages they were associated with the occult or with religious experience … the "dark men" of countless traditions. Today they are a part of the UFO mythos. They arrive after a UFO or fortean event, sometimes afoot, sometimes driving automobiles that appear new even if the vehicle is clearly many years old. […] They ask strange questions and make outlandish observations, or they simply follow from place to place."

  3. 3
    Of or pertaining to Charles Fort.

Example

More examples

"Stories about alligators in the sewers have been of particular interest, however, to Forteans (followers of Charles Fort). Forteans contend that many happenings derided by the official science of the Western world (falls of frogs from clear skies, the appearance of lake monsters, mystery beasts and so on) are genuine occurrences."

Etymology

From Fort + -ean, named after Charles Hoy Fort (1874–1932), an American writer and investigator of anomalous phenomena. The word was coined by American journalist Ben Hecht (1894–1964) in a review of Fort’s book The Book of the Damned (1919) in the Chicago Daily News in 1920.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.