chance
UK /t͡ʃɑːns/ [t͡ʃʰɑːns] · US /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰæns] noun, adjective, adverb, verb, proper noun
Forms chances chancing chanced chaunce
- noun (countable) An opportunity or possibility. “We had the chance to meet the president last week: we have a good/strong chance of making / to make a profit.”
- noun (uncountable) Random occurrence; luck. “Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?”
- noun (countable) The probability of something happening. “There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.”
- noun (in plural as chances) probability; possibility.
- noun (countable, archaic) What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.
- adjective Happening by chance, casual.
- adverb (obsolete) Perchance; perhaps.
- verb (archaic, intransitive) To happen by chance, to occur. “It chanced that I found a solution the very next day.”
- verb (archaic, transitive) To befall; to happen to.
- verb To try or risk. “Shall we carry the umbrella, or chance a rainstorm?”
- verb To discover something by chance. “He chanced upon a kindly stranger who showed him the way.”
- verb (Belize) To rob, cheat or swindle someone. “The car broke down a week after I bought it. I was chanced by that fast-talking salesman.”
- verb (Nigeria) To take an opportunity from someone; to cut a queue.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Adair County, Kentucky, United States.
- proper noun A census-designated place in Somerset County, Maryland, United States.
- proper noun A census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma, United States.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Perkins County, South Dakota, United States.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Essex County, Virginia, United States.
- proper noun A male given name from English, an American pet form of Chauncey, in modern usage also associated with the word chance.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
fortune hap adventure accident casualty chance-medley hazard joss luck serendipity weird eventuality contingency contingent possibility potentiality destiny doom destin fatality opportunity probability prospect gamble risk take chances run a risk take a chance find happen
Etymology
From Middle English chance, cheance, chaunce, cheaunce, a borrowing from Old French cheance (“accident, chance, luck”), from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadere (“to fall, to die, to happen, occur”). Doublet of cadence and cadenza.
From Middle English chancen, chauncen, from the noun (see above).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A supposed material or psychical agent or mode of activity other than a force, law, or purpose; fortune; fate; --in this sense often personifed.
- noun The operation or activity of such agent.
- verb To happen, come, or arrive, without design or expectation.
- verb To take the chances of; to venture upon; --usually with it as object.
Etymology [F. chance, OF. cheance, fr. LL. cadentia a allusion to the falling of the dice), fr. L. cadere to fall; akin to Skr. çad to fall, L. cedere to yield, E. cede. Cf. Cadence.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chance”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details