fortune cookie

noun

: a thin cookie folded to contain a slip of paper on which is printed a fortune, proverb, or humorous statement

Examples of fortune cookie in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Villaraigosa flitted around the racers’ VIP tent, spotted a bowl of fortune cookies and made a beeline. —Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2026

At last, although fortune cookies are not Chinese in origin, they are belovedly engrained in the Chinese-American dining culture. —Catharine Kaufman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Feb. 2026

To Porat’s point, OpenFortune shared research that roughly 3 billion fortune cookies are opened each year across restaurants, with a 99% open rate, and 70% of consumers share their fortune at the table, with 6% posting it on social media. —Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 28 Jan. 2026

And what does the modern fortune cookie have to do with Japanese internment camps during World War II? —Husna Haq, Christian Science Monitor, 6 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1940, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fortune cookie

• bookie
• rookie

Kids Definition

fortune cookie

noun

: a thin cookie folded to contain a slip of paper on which is written a fortune