FORTUITOUS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Fortuitous

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/fɔrtˈuɪtəs/ Listen

adjective

Fortuitous adj.

Happening by chance; coming or occuring unexpectedly, or without any known cause; chance; as, the fortuitous concourse of atoms. "It was from causes seemingly fortuitous... that all the mighty effects of the Reformation flowed." "So as to throw a glancing and fortuitous light upon the whole."

(LAw) Happening independently of human will or means of foresight; resulting from unavoidable physical causes.

Synonyms: Accidental; casual; contingent; incidental. See Accidental.

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Etymology of 'Fortuitous'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fortuitous" Quotes from Famous Books

... was coming to pieces. Added to this, the cold wind drove in continually through the broken pane, and made the place a real purgatory to us. At length, at six o'clock in the morning, we got afloat once more. One advantage, however, resulted from this fortuitous stoppage: we had a very good view of Belgrade, a town of 20,000 inhabitants, situate opposite to Semlin. It is the first Turkish fortified ...

— A Visit to the Holy Land • Ida Pfeiffer

... of South Carolina, and Felix Grundy of Tennessee; the chairmanship of the Committee on Naval Affairs he gave to Langdon Cheves of South Carolina; and the chairmanship of the Committee on Military Affairs, to another South Carolinian, David Williams. There was nothing fortuitous in this selection of representatives from the South and Southwest for important committee posts. Like Clay himself, these young intrepid spirits were solicitous about the southern frontier—about the ultimate disposal of the Floridas; like Clay, they had lost faith ...

— Jefferson and his Colleagues - A Chronicle of the Virginia Dynasty, Volume 15 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Allen Johnson

... set of modifications exhibited; but, under some slight change of predisposing causes—as of season or latitude—might have undergone some other set of modifications: the determining circumstance being one which, in the human sense, we call fortuitous. ...

— Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I • Herbert Spencer

... from the mournful idea on which it had so long brooded. He was a man well skilled in his profession, but had read and thought very little on matters unconnected with it. He had no idea that the marks had any particular signification, or were anything else but common and fortuitous one. That I became at all acquainted with their nature was owing to a ludicrous circumstance which ...

— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... of air over it; or when the superior stratum becomes more condensed by cold than the inferior one by pressure, the upper region will descend and the lower one ascend. In this situation if one part of the atmosphere be hotter from some fortuitous circumstances, or, has less pressure over it, the lower stratum will begin to ascend at this part, and resemble water falling through a hole as mentioned above. If the lower region of air was going forwards with considerable velocity, it ...

— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin

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