chance

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See also: Chance

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old French cheance (“accident, chance, luck”), from Vulgar Latin cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadō (“I fall, I die”). See also cadence, from the same Latin root.

Noun[edit]

chance (plural chances)

  1. (countable) An opportunity or possibility.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 2, 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% chance of rain tomorrow.

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 Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

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.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of W. Lambarde to this entry?)
  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.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

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.

References[edit]

Statistics[edit]

Danish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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 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]

Related terms[edit]

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French chance

Noun[edit]

chance f (invariable)

  1. chance (possibility of a certain outcome)

Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French chance.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

chance (plural chances)

  1. Probability
  2. chance, opportunity.

Related terms[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From French chance.

Noun[edit]

chance f (plural chances)

  1. chance
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