FORTUNE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fortune mean? 

• FORTUNE (noun)
  The noun FORTUNE has 4 senses:

1. an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another

2. a large amount of wealth or prosperity

3. an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome

4. your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)

  Familiarity information: FORTUNE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORTUNE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

chance; fortune; hazard; luck

Context example:

we ran into each other by pure chance

Hypernyms ("fortune" is a kind of...):

phenomenon (any state or process known through the senses rather than by intuition or reasoning)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fortune"):

bad luck; mischance; mishap (an unpredictable outcome that is unfortunate)

even chance; toss-up; tossup (an unpredictable phenomenon)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A large amount of wealth or prosperity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("fortune" is a kind of...):

hoarded wealth; treasure (accumulated wealth in the form of money or jewels etc.)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

fortune; luck

Context example:

it was as if fortune guided his hand

Hypernyms ("fortune" is a kind of...):

phenomenon (any state or process known through the senses rather than by intuition or reasoning)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fortune"):

fluke; good fortune; good luck (a stroke of luck)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

circumstances; destiny; fate; fortune; lot; luck; portion

Context example:

success that was her portion

Hypernyms ("fortune" is a kind of...):

condition (a mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fortune"):

good fortune; good luck; luckiness (an auspicious state resulting from favorable outcomes)

providence (a manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures)

bad luck; ill luck; misfortune; tough luck (an unfortunate state resulting from unfavorable outcomes)

failure (lack of success)

 Context examples 

As to marriage, and fortune, and all that, I believe I was almost as innocently undesigning then, as when I loved little Em'ly.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Laurie was growing more serious, strong, and firm, and both were learning that beauty, youth, good fortune, even love itself, cannot keep care and pain, loss and sorrow, from the most blessed for ...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In the ebb of their fortunes, this sum was their total capital; yet they laid it unhesitatingly against Matthewson’s six hundred.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Fortune favoured us, and we got home without meeting a soul.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this advertisement had upon your fortunes.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Here is a young man who learns suddenly that, if a certain older man dies, he will succeed to a fortune.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Thanks to my brother Death, I’ve lighted on a fortune. It’s a mint.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Fortune came, his prize-money as lieutenant being great; promotion, too, came at last; but Fanny Harville did not live to know it.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

If there is a good fortune on one side, there can be no occasion for any on the other.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It was on the very evening of our perilous adventure with Challenger's home-made balloon that the change came in our fortunes.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)