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chance

noun
/t͡ʃæns//t͡ʃʰæns/CA/t͡ʃʰɑːns/UK/t͡ʃʰɛəns~t͡ʃʰeəns/CA

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.

  1. derived from cadere — “to fall, to die, to happen, occur”
  2. derived from *cadentia✻ — “falling”
  3. derived from cheance — “accident, chance, luck”
  4. inherited from chance

Definitions

  1. 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.
    • There was a fat/slim chance that my letter would arrive in time.
    • If you get the chance, try and catch the new production of "Hamlet."

  2. Random occurrence

    Random occurrence; luck.

    • Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?
    • My whole life seems to be ruled by blind chance.

  3. The probability of something happening.

    • There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.
    • There is little chance of having the chance to approach such a big celeb.
  4. ›+ 17 more definitions

    1. probability

      probability; possibility.

    2. What befalls or happens to a person

      What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.

      • But at the moment when everything was going so well, there came one of those unforeseeable chances that reduce even the most circumspectly arranged plots to the significance of a mere toss-up.
      • Wild-visag'd Wanderer! ah for thy heavy chance!

    3. Happening by chance, casual.

      • No crowd was about the door; no people were discernible at any of the many windows; not even a chance passer-by was in the street. An unnatural silence and desertion reigned there.
      • Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours' relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey.

    4. Perchance

      Perchance; perhaps.

    5. To happen by chance, to occur.

      • It chanced that I found a solution the very next day.
      • if a bird's nest chance to be before thee
      • Once […] it chanced that Geoffrey Riddell Bishop of Ely, a Prelate rather troublesome to our Abbot, made a request of him for timber from his woods towards certain edifices going on at Glemsford.

    6. To befall

      To befall; to happen to.

    7. To try or risk.

      • Shall we carry the umbrella, or chance a rainstorm?
      • He does chance it in stocks, but he's always played on the square, if you call stocks gambling.

    8. To discover something by chance.

      • He chanced upon a kindly stranger who showed him the way.
      • I chanced on this letter.

    9. To rob, cheat or swindle someone.

      • The car broke down a week after I bought it. I was chanced by that fast-talking salesman.
      • Be prepared to engage in protests of all businesses nationwide who are violating the copyright act and chancing our members.

    10. To take an opportunity from someone

      To take an opportunity from someone; to cut a queue.

    11. An unincorporated community in Adair County, Kentucky, United States.

    12. A census-designated place in Somerset County, Maryland, United States.

    13. A census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma, United States.

    14. An unincorporated community in Perkins County, South Dakota, United States.

    15. An unincorporated community in Essex County, Virginia, United States.

    16. A male given name from English, an American pet form of Chauncey, in modern usage also…

      A male given name from English, an American pet form of Chauncey, in modern usage also associated with the word chance.

    17. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

bechance, blow one's chance, Buckley's chance, by any chance, by chance, cat in hell's chance, cat's chance in hell, chanceable, chance acquaintance, chance card, chance'd be a fine thing, chance fracture, chanceful, chanceless, chancely, chance-medley, chance passenger, chancer, chances are, chance the ducks, chancewise, chance would be a fine thing, chancy, Chinaman's chance, Chinaman's chance in hell, Come By Chance, dog's chance, even chance, fair chance, fat chance, fighting chance, first-chance exception, game of chance, give chance to, half a chance, half-chance, happenchance, happy chance, in with a chance, jump at the chance · +33 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at chance. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01chance02possibility03context04circumstances05circumstance06event07happens08happen

A definitional loop anchored at chance. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at chance

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA