Fortuitous

//foɹˈt͡ʃu.ɪ.tɪs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Happening by chance; coincidental, accidental.

    "[…] and during 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."

  2. 2
    Happening by a lucky chance; lucky or fortunate.

    "And then he met John Dowsett, the great John Dowsett. The whole thing was fortuitous. This cannot be doubted."

  3. 3
    Happening independently of human will.
Adjective
  1. 1
    occurring by happy chance wordnet
  2. 2
    having no cause or apparent cause wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
causelessfortunateserendipitousaccessoryaccidentaccidental

Example

More examples

"How fortuitous that you were there on the same night!"

Etymology

From Latin fortuītus.

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