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Definition
occurring by happy chance- profits were enhanced by a fortuitous drop in the cost of raw materials
- When the chair called and Zulma handed me the phone, I had never been more surprised by what I took then to be the fortuitousness of drinking.Alice Sebold -- Lucky
- Her presence at his side felt more unbearably fortuitous than ever.Milan Kundera -- The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- The situation was resolved by the fortuitous appearance of the caddymaster,F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Winter Dreams
- It is odd how we of that pension, who seemed such a fortuitous collection, have been working into one another's lives.Forster, E. M. -- A Room With A View
- Our meeting is wholly fortuitous.London, Jack -- Love of Life And Other Stories
- If he followed it by mere fortuitous coincidence, it was done by an evil chance.Dickens, Charles -- Our Mutual Friend
- Minchin in return was quite sure that man was not a mere machine or a fortuitous conjunction of atoms; if Mrs.Eliot, George -- Middlemarch
- The whole thing was fortuitous.London, Jack -- Burning Daylight
- Her only hope lay in waiting until darkness had fallen, unless some fortuitous circumstance should arise before.Burroughs, Edgar Rice -- The Son Of Tarzan
- In a way, their meeting the next morning was fortuitous enough, yet it had also its significance for both of them.Oppenheim, E. Phillips -- The Kingdom of the Blind
- Just how I was to help Perry I could scarce imagine, but I hoped that some fortuitous circumstance might solve the problem for me.Burroughs, Edgar Rice -- At the Earth's Core
- fortuitous encounters—strange accidents of fortune
- The prologue rose to its reasonable climax: For that fortuitous girl the sweet day dawned To wed her gorgeous prince.Ian McEwan -- Atonement
- Neither do I. "But I have to admit," Simon added, "coincidence or not, it turned out to be a fortuitous occurrence."Cassandra Clare -- City of Bones
- It is odd how we of that pension, who seemed such a fortuitous collection, have been working into one another's lives.E.M. Forster -- A Room With A View
- The shipping lane boundaries were marked by numbered buoys, and the hope was to stumble across one fortuitously so as to orient oneself.David Guterson -- Snow Falling on Cedars
- Robert Langdon's unexpected visit to Château Villette had brought the Teacher both a fortuitous windfall and an intricate dilemma.Dan Brown -- The Da Vinci Code
- If anything, deafness proved fortuitous for him, finally giving him a doctor-certified excuse for disobeying.John Grogan -- Marley & Me
- Most fortuitously, Parkland Memorial Hospital is just four miles away, should Marina go into labor with the new baby while Oswald is at work.Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard -- Killing Kennedy
fortuitousness = when things happen by happy chance
(Editor's note: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means state or degree of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.)
fortuitous = occurring by happy chance
fortuitous = occurring by happy chance