luck
Plural: lucks
Noun
- your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)
- "the luck of the Irish"
- an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another
- "bad luck caused his downfall"
- an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome
- "it was my good luck to be there"
- "they say luck is a lady"
- Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence.
- Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence.
- A favourable chance occurrence.
- A superstitious feeling that brings fortune or success.
- Success.
- The results of a random number generator.
Verb
Verb Forms: lucked, lucking, lucks
- To succeed by good fortune or chance; to get lucky.
- To find something through good fortune; used with into, on, onto or upon.
Examples
- Gilbert had some bad luck yesterday — he got pick-pocketed and lost fifty dollars.
- He blew on the dice for luck.
- He has a lot of luck with the ladies. Perhaps it's because of his new motorbike.
- He really lucked out by drawing the ’Q’ right after his opponent played ’UI’.
- I couldn't believe my luck when I found a fifty dollar bill on the street.
- I tried for ages to find a pair of blue suede shoes, but didn't have any luck.
- I wish you lots of luck for the exam tomorrow.
- Sometimes it takes a bit of luck to get success.
- The creators of tool-assisted speedruns often manipulate luck to get the most favorable results in order to save the most time.
- The raffle is just a matter of luck.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English luk, lukke, related to Old Frisian luk (“luck”), West Frisian gelok (“luck”), Saterland Frisian Gluk (“luck”), Dutch geluk (“luck, happiness”), Low German luk (“luck”), German Glück (“luck, good fortune, happiness”), Danish lykke (“luck”), Swedish lycka (“luck”), Icelandic lukka (“luck”). According to the OED, it may be related to lock.
A loanword into English in the 15th century (probably as a gambling term) from Middle Dutch luc, a shortened form of gheluc (“good fortune”), whence Modern Dutch geluk.
Middle Dutch luc, gheluc has parallels with Middle High German lücke, gelücke (Modern German Glück). The word occurs only from the 12th century, apparently first in Rhine Frankish. Perhaps from a Frankish *galukki. The word enters standard Middle High German during the 13th century, and spreads to English and Scandinavian in the Late Middle Ages. Its origin seems to have been regional or dialectal, and there were competing German words such as gevelle or schick, or the Latinate fortūne from Latin fortūna. Its etymology is unknown, although there are numerous proposals as to its derivations from a number of roots.
Use as a verb in American English is late (1940s), but there was a Middle English verb lukken (“to chance, to happen by good fortune”) in the 15th century.
Synonyms
chance, circumstances, destiny, fate, fortune, hazard, lot, portion, accident, adventure, casualty, chance-medley, felicity, fortuitousness, fortuity, good fortune, good luck, hap, happiness, joss, luck, luck of the Irish, serendipity, weird
Scrabble Score: 10
luck: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordluck: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
luck: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary