fortuity

Meanings

1. 1noununcountable

   The quality of happening by chance, without planning or a clear cause.

   Grammar: Used without an or plural in this sense: the fortuity of the meeting.

   Patterns

   • the fortuity of something

   She marveled at the fortuity of their meeting on the train.

   Historians debate the fortuity of the discovery.

   He stressed the fortuity of the outcome, not any skill.

2. 2nouncountableformalrare

   A chance event or happy accident.

   Grammar: Has a plural: fortuities.

   Patterns

   • a fortuity of something

   Finding the letter was a pure fortuity.

   The two fortuities together changed her career.

   History turns on such fortuities.

Word forms

Common combinations

pure fortuity

Their friendship began through pure fortuity.

sheer fortuity

By sheer fortuity, the doctor was on the same flight.

the fortuity of

The fortuity of birth decides many things.

a happy fortuity

The discovery was a happy fortuity.

mere fortuity

It was mere fortuity that we met.

Synonyms and how they differ

chance

Chance is the everyday word, whereas fortuity is more formal and abstract.

luck

Luck suggests good or bad fortune, while fortuity only says there was no design.

coincidence

Coincidence stresses two events happening together by accident.

accident

Accident often implies something unplanned and unwelcome, unlike fortuity.

Opposites

Word family

fortuitous adjective

Happening by chance, often happily.

fortuitously adverb

By chance.

fortuitousness noun

The state of being fortuitous.

Commonly confused: fortuity or fortune? fortuity or fortitude?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “fortuity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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