"small fortune" meaning in English

See small fortune in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /smɔːl ˈfɔːtʃuːn/ [Received-Pronunciation], /smɔl ˈfɔɹtʃən/ [General-American], /-tʃun/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-small fortune.wav Forms: small fortunes [plural]
Etymology: From small + fortune (“one’s wealth; the amount of money one has, especially if it is vast; large amount of money”), suggesting a sizeable sum of money but not all of one’s wealth. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|small|fortune|t2=one’s wealth; the amount of money one has, especially if it is vast; large amount of money}} small + fortune (“one’s wealth; the amount of money one has, especially if it is vast; large amount of money”) Head templates: {{en-noun}} small fortune (plural small fortunes)
  1. (colloquial, hyperbolic) A large amount of money, especially one paid for something. Tags: colloquial, excessive Synonyms: bundle, mint [informal], pile [slang] Translations (large amount of money): feixe de cartos [masculine] (Galician), kisebb vagyon (Hungarian), mică avere [feminine] (Romanian), căruță de bani [feminine] (Romanian), кру́глая копе́йка (krúglaja kopéjka) [feminine] (Russian)

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "small",
        "3": "fortune",
        "t2": "one’s wealth; the amount of money one has, especially if it is vast; large amount of money"
      },
      "expansion": "small + fortune (“one’s wealth; the amount of money one has, especially if it is vast; large amount of money”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From small + fortune (“one’s wealth; the amount of money one has, especially if it is vast; large amount of money”), suggesting a sizeable sum of money but not all of one’s wealth.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "small fortunes",
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        "plural"
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "small fortune (plural small fortunes)",
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        "small for",
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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    {
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Romanian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Russian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Money",
          "orig": "en:Money",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
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      "examples": [
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              28,
              41
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          ],
          "text": "Divorcing my wife cost me a small fortune.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A large amount of money, especially one paid for something."
      ],
      "id": "en-small_fortune-en-noun-TNL-QaHP",
      "links": [
        [
          "large",
          "large"
        ],
        [
          "amount",
          "amount#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
        [
          "paid",
          "pay#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, hyperbolic) A large amount of money, especially one paid for something."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bundle"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "informal"
          ],
          "word": "mint"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "slang"
          ],
          "word": "pile"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "excessive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "gl",
          "lang": "Galician",
          "lang_code": "gl",
          "sense": "large amount of money",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "feixe de cartos"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "lang_code": "hu",
          "sense": "large amount of money",
          "word": "kisebb vagyon"
        },
        {
          "code": "ro",
          "lang": "Romanian",
          "lang_code": "ro",
          "sense": "large amount of money",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "mică avere"
        },
        {
          "code": "ro",
          "lang": "Romanian",
          "lang_code": "ro",
          "sense": "large amount of money",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "căruță de bani"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "lang_code": "ru",
          "roman": "krúglaja kopéjka",
          "sense": "large amount of money",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "кру́глая копе́йка"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
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      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
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      "ipa": "/-tʃun/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "small fortune"
}
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      },
      "expansion": "small + fortune (“one’s wealth; the amount of money one has, especially if it is vast; large amount of money”)",
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    }
  ],
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  "forms": [
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        "plural"
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    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "small fortune (plural small fortunes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "hyphenations": [
    {
      "parts": [
        "small for",
        "tune"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English hyperboles",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Galician translations",
        "Terms with Hungarian translations",
        "Terms with Romanian translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "en:Money"
      ],
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              28,
              41
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          ],
          "text": "Divorcing my wife cost me a small fortune.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A large amount of money, especially one paid for something."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "large",
          "large"
        ],
        [
          "amount",
          "amount#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "money",
          "money"
        ],
        [
          "paid",
          "pay#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, hyperbolic) A large amount of money, especially one paid for something."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bundle"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "informal"
          ],
          "word": "mint"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "slang"
          ],
          "word": "pile"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "excessive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/smɔːl ˈfɔːtʃuːn/",
      "tags": [
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    },
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      "ipa": "/smɔl ˈfɔɹtʃən/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
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      "ipa": "/-tʃun/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "gl",
      "lang": "Galician",
      "lang_code": "gl",
      "sense": "large amount of money",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "feixe de cartos"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "lang_code": "hu",
      "sense": "large amount of money",
      "word": "kisebb vagyon"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "lang_code": "ro",
      "sense": "large amount of money",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "mică avere"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "lang_code": "ro",
      "sense": "large amount of money",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "căruță de bani"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "lang_code": "ru",
      "roman": "krúglaja kopéjka",
      "sense": "large amount of money",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "кру́глая копе́йка"
    }
  ],
  "word": "small fortune"
}

Download raw JSONL data for small fortune meaning in English (3.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.