chance

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English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English chance, cheance, chaunce, cheaunce, a borrowing from Old French chance (“accident, chance, luck”), from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadō (“I fall, I die”). Doublet of cadence and cadenza.

Noun[edit]

chance (plural chances)

  1. (countable) An opportunity or possibility.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 2, in The Celebrity:
      Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.
    We had the chance to meet the president last week.
  2. (uncountable) Random occurrence; luck.
    Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?
  3. (countable) The probability of something happening.
    There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.
  4. (countable, archaic) What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.
    • 1795, Robert Southey, "The Soldier's Wife" [1]:
      Wild-visag'd Wanderer! ah for thy heavy chance!
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from the noun "chance"
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective[edit]

chance (comparative more chance, superlative most chance)

  1. (rare) Happening by chance, casual.
    • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, ch. VI, The Shoe Maker (Heron Book Centenial Edition)
      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.

Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English chancen, chauncen, from the noun (see above).

Verb[edit]

chance (third-person singular simple present chances, present participle chancing, simple past and past participle chanced)

  1. (archaic, intransitive) To happen by chance, to occur.
    It chanced that I found a solution the very next day.
    • Bible, Deuteronomy xxii. 6
      if a bird's nest chance to be before thee
    • Shakespeare
      I chanced on this letter.
    • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XV, Practical — Devotional
      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.
    • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII
      Mr. Mason, shivering as some one chanced to open the door, asked for more coal to be put on the fire, which had burnt out its flame, though its mass of cinder still shone hot and red. The footman who brought the coal, in going out, stopped near Mr. Eshton's chair, and said something to him in a low voice, of which I heard only the words, "old woman,"—"quite troublesome."
  2. (archaic, transitive) To befall; to happen to.
    • 1826, William Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent
      […] while the King and Godwine sate at the table, accompanied with others of the nobilitie, it chanced the cupbearer (as he brought wine to the bourd) to slip with the one foote, and yet by good strength of his other leg, to recover himselfe without falling […]
  3. To try or risk.
    Shall we carry the umbrella, or chance a rainstorm?
    • W. D. Howells
      Come what will, I will chance it.
  4. To discover something by chance.
    He chanced upon a kindly stranger who showed him the way.
  5. (Belize) To rob, cheat or swindle someone.
    I was chanced out of my money by that fast-talking salesman.
    • Shyne Barrow
      Be prepared to engage in protests of all businesses nationwide who are violating the copyright act and chancing our members.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

References[edit]

Statistics[edit]

Most common English words before 1923 in Project Gutenberg: filled · visit · follow · #639: chance · happened · broken · trouble

Danish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from French chance, from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadō (“I fall, I die”).

Noun[edit]

chance c (singular definite chancen, plural indefinite chancer)

  1. A chance

Antonyms[edit]

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old French chance, cheance (“accident, chance, luck”), from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadēns, from cadō (“I fall, I die”). Doublet of cadence, borrowed from Italian.

Noun[edit]

chance f (plural chances)

  1. chance
  2. luck

Antonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Italian[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from French chance. Doublet of cadenza.

Noun[edit]

chance f (invariable)

  1. chance (possibility of a certain outcome)

Old French[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadēns, from cadō (“I fall, I die”).

Noun[edit]

chance f (oblique plural chances, nominative singular chance, nominative plural chances)

  1. chance; fate
  2. (rare) a throw of a die

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

References[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from French chance. Doublet of cadência.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

chance f (plural chances)

  1. Probability
  2. chance, opportunity.

Related terms[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowing from French chance. Doublet of cadencia.

Noun[edit]

chance m, f (plural chances)

  1. chance

Conjunction[edit]

chance

  1. (Mexico) maybe, perchance, perhaps or possibly

Synonyms[edit]

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