chance
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- chaunce (obsolete)
Pronunciation[edit]
- IPA(key): /t͡ʃæns/
- (US, Canada) IPA(key): [t͡ʃʰɛəns], [t͡ʃʰeəns]
- (Northern England, General Australian, Ireland) IPA(key): [tʃʰæns], [tʃʰans]
- IPA(key): /tʃɑːns/
- (Received Pronunciation, Cockney) IPA(key): [tʃʰɑːns]
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): [tʃʰɐːns]
- (Indian English) IPA(key): [tʃɑːns]
Audio (RP) (file) Audio (UK) (file) Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːns, -æns
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 cadere (“to fall, to die, to happen, occur”). Doublet of cadence and cadenza.
Noun[edit]
chance (countable and uncountable, plural chances)
- (countable) An opportunity or possibility.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:
- 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.
- 1965 March 15, Johnson, Lyndon B., Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise [on the Voting Rights Act], 3/15/65. MP506.[1], Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, 42:30 from the start:
- It never even occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over this country. But now I do have that chance, and I'll let you in on a secret: I mean to use it.
- (uncountable) Random occurrence; luck.
- Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?
- (countable) The probability of something happening.
- There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.
- (countable, archaic) What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.
- 1795, Southey, Robert, The Soldier's Wife[2]:
- Wild-visag'd Wanderer! ah for thy heavy chance!
Synonyms[edit]
- (random occurrence): fortune, hap; see also Thesaurus:luck
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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- 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.
Adjective[edit]
chance (not comparable)
- Happening by chance, casual.
- 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, ch. VI, The Shoe Maker (Heron Book Centennial 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.
- 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, ch. VI, The Shoe Maker (Heron Book Centennial Edition)
Translations[edit]
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Adverb[edit]
chance (not comparable)
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)
- (archaic, intransitive) To happen by chance, to occur.
- It chanced that I found a solution the very next day.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Deuteronomy 22:6:
- if a bird's nest chance to be before thee
- 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."
- (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 […]
- To try or risk.
- Shall we carry the umbrella, or chance a rainstorm?
- 1890, William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes
- He does chance it in stocks, but he's always played on the square, if you call stocks gambling.
- To discover something by chance.
- c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i]:
- I chanced on this letter.
- He chanced upon a kindly stranger who showed him the way.
- (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.
- 2017 March 22, Jules Vasquez, “Shyne Urges Artists To Protest Against Businesses Countrywide”, in 7 News Belize[3]:
- Be prepared to engage in protests of all businesses nationwide who are violating the copyright act and chancing our members.
Synonyms[edit]
- (to happen) come to pass, occur, transpire; See also Thesaurus:happen
- (to happen to)
- (to try) test
- (to discover something) come across, come on, come upon, encounter, stumble upon
- (to cheat someone) deceive, fool, trick; See also Thesaurus:deceive
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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References[edit]
- “chance” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “chance”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
Anagrams[edit]
Danish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French chance, from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadō (“I fall, I die”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
chance c (singular definite chancen, plural indefinite chancer)
- A chance
Antonyms[edit]
French[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.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
chance f (plural chances)
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
- → Breton: chañs
- → Bulgarian: шанс (šans)
- → Czech: šance
- → Danish: chance
- → Dutch: sjans
- → German: Chance
- → Esperanto: ŝanco
- → Estonian: šanss
- → Persian: شانس (šâns)
- → Irish: seans
- → Ido: chanco
- → Italian: chance
- → Polish: szansa
- → Portuguese: chance
- → Luxembourgish: kans
- → Romanian: șansă
- → Russian: шанс (šans)
- Serbo‐Croatian: šansa, шанса
- → Spanish: chance
- → Swedish: chans, chansa
- → Turkish: şans
Related terms[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “chance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French chance. Doublet of cadenza.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
chance f (invariable)
- chance (possibility of a certain outcome)
Old French[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadēns, from cadō (“I fall, I die”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
chance f (oblique plural chances, nominative singular chance, nominative plural chances)
Related terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]
- Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (cheance, supplement)
- Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (chance)
- chance on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
Portuguese[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French chance.[1][2] Doublet of cadência.
Pronunciation[edit]
- Hyphenation: chan‧ce
Noun[edit]
chance f (plural chances)
- probability
- chance, opportunity
- Synonym: oportunidade
References[edit]
- ^ “chance” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2022.
- ^ “chance” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.
Spanish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French chance or, in Mexico, from English chance. Doublet of cadencia.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
chance m or f (plural chances)
Conjunction[edit]
chance
Further reading[edit]
- “chance”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɑːns
- Rhymes:English/ɑːns/1 syllable
- Rhymes:English/æns
- Rhymes:English/æns/1 syllable
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱh₂d-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
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- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
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- English adjectives
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- English verbs
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- Belizean English
- English raising verbs
- Danish terms borrowed from French
- Danish terms derived from French
- Danish terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- Danish terms derived from Latin
- Danish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Danish common-gender nouns
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms inherited from Vulgar Latin
- French terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- French terms inherited from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French doublets
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
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- Rhymes:French/ɑ̃s
- Rhymes:French/ɑ̃s/1 syllable
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
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- Italian terms borrowed from French
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- Rhymes:Italian/ans
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- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
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- Old French terms inherited from Vulgar Latin
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- Portuguese terms borrowed from French
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- Portuguese doublets
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- Portuguese 2-syllable words
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- Spanish terms borrowed from French
- Spanish terms derived from French
- Spanish terms borrowed from English
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- Spanish doublets
- Spanish 2-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns
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- Spanish nouns with multiple genders
- Spanish conjunctions
- Mexican Spanish