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Fortune

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for⋅tune

  [fawr-chuhn] noun, verb, -tuned, -tun⋅ing.
Use Fortune in a Sentence
–noun
1. position in life as determined by wealth: to make one's fortune.
2. wealth or riches: to lose a small fortune in bad investments.
3. great wealth; ample stock of money, property, and the like: to be worth a fortune.
4. chance; luck: They each had the bad fortune to marry the wrong person.
5. fortunes. things that happen or are to happen to a person in his or her life.
6. fate; lot; destiny: whatever my fortune may be.
7. (initial capital letter) chance personified, commonly regarded as a mythical being distributing arbitrarily or capriciously the lots of life: Perhaps Fortune will smile on our venture.
8. good luck; success; prosperity: a family blessed by fortune.
9. Archaic. a wealthy woman; an heiress.
–verb (used with object)
10. Archaic. to endow (someone or something) with a fortune.
–verb (used without object)
11. Archaic. to chance or happen; come by chance.
—Idiom
12. tell someone's fortune, to profess to inform someone of future events in his or her own life; foretell.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME < OF < L fortūna chance, luck, fortune, deriv. of fort- (s. of fors) chance

Related forms:
for⋅tune⋅less, adjective

Synonyms:
4. fate, destiny, providence; kismet, karma. 7. Moira; Lady Luck.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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for·tune   (fôr'chən)   
n.  

    1. The chance happening of fortunate or adverse events; luck: He decided to go home for the holidays, and his fortune turned for the worse.

    2. fortunes The turns of luck in the course of one's life.

    3. Success, especially when at least partially resulting from luck: No matter what they tried, it ended in fortune.

    4. A person's condition or standing in life determined by material possessions or financial wealth: She pursued her fortune in another country.

    5. Extensive amounts of material possessions or money; wealth.

    6. A large sum of money: spent a fortune on the new car.

    7. Fate; destiny: told my fortune with tarot cards.

    8. A foretelling of one's destiny.

    1. A person's condition or standing in life determined by material possessions or financial wealth: She pursued her fortune in another country.

    2. Extensive amounts of material possessions or money; wealth.

    3. A large sum of money: spent a fortune on the new car.

    4. Fate; destiny: told my fortune with tarot cards.

    5. A foretelling of one's destiny.

  3. often Fortune A hypothetical, often personified force or power that favorably or unfavorably governs the events of one's life: We believe that Fortune is on our side.

    1. Fate; destiny: told my fortune with tarot cards.

    2. A foretelling of one's destiny.

v.   for·tuned, for·tun·ing, for·tunes

v.   tr.

  1. Archaic To endow with wealth.

  2. Obsolete To ascribe or give good or bad fortune to.

v.   intr. Archaic
To occur by chance; happen.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin fortūna; see bher-1 in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

fortune 
c.1300, "chance, luck as a force in human affairs," from O.Fr. fortune (12c.), from L. fortuna, from fors (gen. fortis) "chance, luck," from PIE base *bhrtis-. Often personified as a goddess; her wheel betokens vicissitude. Sense of "owned wealth" first found in Spenser; probably it evolved from senses of "one's condition or standing in life," hence "position as determined by wealth," then "wealth itself." Soldier of fortune first attested 1661. The fortune cookie (1962) is said to have been invented in 1918 by David Jung, Chinese immigrant to America who established Hong Kong Noodle Co., who handed out cookies that contained uplifting messages as a promotional gimmick. Fortune 500 "most profitable American companies" is 1955, from the list published annually in "Fortune" magazine. Fortunate Islands "mythical abode of the blessed dead, in the Western Ocean," 1432, translates L. Fortunatæ Insulæ.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

fortune

see make a fortune.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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