In the Wild
🤔 Everyone Gets This Wrong
Technically, fortuitous just means "happening by chance" — it says nothing about whether the chance was good or bad. A flat tire is just as fortuitous, by the book, as a lottery win. But so many people have used it to mean "lucky" for so long that Merriam-Webster now lists that as an accepted second meaning too. Usage guides still grumble about it, but the shift has basically already happened.
✨ Fun Fact Worth Stealing
In old Roman law, a "fortuitous event" (casus fortuitus) was the technical term for something like today's "act of God" — an unforeseeable accident nobody could be blamed for. That legal sense is the direct ancestor of the everyday word we use now, and it's still baked into Spanish and French law today as caso fortuito and cas fortuit.
Use It Today
- Reach for "fortuitous" the next time an unplanned coincidence works out in your favor — a canceled meeting that frees up your afternoon, a stranger's recommendation that turns out perfect.
- Try the technically-correct usage out loud — describe a purely random event, good or bad, as "fortuitous," and see if anyone notices.
- Swap it in for "lucky" in a sentence to sound a little more polished without changing the meaning much at all.
- Bring up casus fortuitus next time someone mentions an insurance claim or a "force majeure" clause — it's the same idea, older paperwork.
This word traces back to a Latin word for "chance" itself — and to a goddess of luck. Uncover exactly where it comes from, and how to say it in three other languages.
Uncover the Backstory →