ádhúil
/ˈɑːwʊl/
The Irish word for lucky is ádhúil.
ádhúil is an adjective used to describe people who have good fortune. Irish speakers often use idiomatic phrases to emphasize someone's luck. For example, you can say tá go hiontach an t-ádh ort to express that someone is very lucky or tá an t-ádh leat to say that luck is with them.
Meaning: of people, having good fortune (adj)
How do you pronounce it?
/ˈɑːwʊl/
Did you know?
- In traditional Irish folklore, luck was often viewed as a finite resource that could be 'stolen' or 'transferred' between people, leading to specific social taboos about praising someone's luck too loudly.
- In many Irish dialects, instead of saying someone is ádhúil, people say tá an saol air which literally translates to 'the life is on him'.
- The suffix '-úil' in ádhúil is a common way in Irish to turn a noun into an adjective, similar to how '-ful' works in English to turn 'beauty' into 'beautiful'.
Example conversation
Cathal and Aoife are talking about a lottery win.
- CathalBhua mé an lotaireí!I won the lottery!
- AoifeMo ghniomhartha, tá tú an-ádhúil, a Chathail!My goodness, you are very lucky, Cathal!
- CathalTá mé an-sáitheach.I am very happy.
- AoifeIs ádhúil tú go aifreann.You are incredibly lucky.
Sources
- Pronunciation: Wiktionary entry ádhúil, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
