Meaning & use
lucky
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Having good things happen by chance rather than through skill or effort.
Grammar: Often followed by to plus a verb: lucky to win.
Patterns
- lucky to do something
- lucky with something
- lucky enough to do something
She was lucky to find a seat on the train.
We were lucky with the weather on our trip.
He is lucky that no one was hurt.
adjectivebefore a noun
Believed to bring good fortune.
Grammar: Goes before a noun: a lucky charm.
Patterns
- a lucky charm
He wore his lucky socks to every match.
Seven is her lucky number.
The coin was a lucky charm from her grandmother.
adjectivebefore a noun
Happening by good chance, with a favorable result.
Grammar: Describes an event: a lucky escape, a lucky guess.
Patterns
- a lucky escape
- a lucky guess
It was a lucky guess, and it turned out right.
They had a lucky escape when the branch fell.
A lucky break gave her the job.
Word forms
| comparative | luckier |
|---|---|
| superlative | luckiest |
Common combinations
- lucky to be alive
- After the crash, he was lucky to be alive.
- a lucky charm
- She carries a lucky charm in her pocket.
- a lucky escape
- The cyclist had a lucky escape.
- get lucky
- I think we got lucky with the tickets.
- lucky number
- Eight is a lucky number in some cultures.
- lucky break
- A lucky break landed him the role.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fortunate
- Fortunate is more formal and neutral, while lucky is the everyday word that stresses chance.
- blessed
- Blessed suggests deep, thankful good fortune, often about family or health.
- charmed
- Charmed describes a life in which things always seem to go well, as if protected.
- jammy
- Jammy is informal British slang for annoyingly good luck.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: lucky or fortunate?
lucky vs fortunate
Fortunate sounds more formal and can imply deserved fortune, while lucky stresses pure chance.
Practice
She was ___ to survive the fall without a scratch.
Choose one answer.
After was the sentence needs an adjective, and lucky to survive fits. Luck is a noun, luckily is an adverb, and luckless means unlucky.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lucky”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.