chance
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /t͡ʃæns/
ipa: [t͡ʃʰæns]
ipa: [t͡ʃʰɛəns]
ipa: [t͡ʃʰeəns]
ipa: [t͡ʃʰæns]
ipa: [t͡ʃʰans]
ipa: [t͡ʃʰæːns]
ipa: [t͡ʃʰɛːns]
ipa: /t͡ʃɑːns/
ipa: [t͡ʃʰɑːns]
note: Cultivated Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [t͡ʃʰäːns]
note: Cultivated Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [t͡ʃʰɐːns]
ipa: [t͡ʃɑːns]
rhymes: -ɑːns
rhymes: -æns
Forms: form: chances
form: chaunce
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.
Senses: examples: text: We had the chance to meet the president last week: we have a good/strong chance of making / to make a profit.
text: There was a fat/slim chance that my letter would arrive in time.
text: If you get the chance, try and catch the new production of "Hamlet."
text: Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1965 March 15, Lyndon B. Johnson, 42:30 from the start, in Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise [on the Voting Rights Act], 3/15/65. MP506., Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum:
glosses: An opportunity or possibility.
examples: text: Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?
synonyms: word: fortune
word: hap
word: adventure
word: accident
word: casualty
word: chance
word: chance-medley
word: fortune
word: hap
word: hazard
word: joss
word: luck
word: serendipity
word: weird
glosses: Random occurrence; luck.
examples: text: There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.
glosses: The probability of something happening.
examples: text: Sometimes the name is changed because it is thought to be unlucky. If "Chua" is ill, the chances are that there are certain spirits who do not like his name, so the parents alter his name to "Mee," or something else, and then he gets well again.
ref: 1908, Ernest Young, “Chapter 4 The children”, in Peeps at Many Lands: Siam, London: Adam and Charles Black, page 16:
synonyms: word: eventuality
word: chance
word: contingency
word: contingent
word: eventuality
word: possibility
word: potentiality
glosses: probability; possibility.
raw_tags: as chances
examples: text: Wild-visag'd Wanderer! ah for thy heavy chance!
ref: 1795, Robert Southey, The Soldier's Wife:
synonyms: word: destiny
word: doom
word: chance
word: destin
word: destiny
word: doom
word: fatality
word: fate
word: foredoom
word: foreordination
word: fortune
word: kismet
word: lot
word: orlay
word: portion
word: predestination
word: predestiny
word: preordination
word: qadar
word: weird
word: wyrd
glosses: What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: bechance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: blow one's chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: Buckley's chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: by any chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: by chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: cat in hell's chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: cat's chance in hell
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chanceable
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chance acquaintance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chance card
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chance'd be a fine thing
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chance fracture
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chanceful
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chanceless
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chancely
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chance-medley
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chance passenger
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chancer
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chances are
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chance the ducks
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chancewise
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chance would be a fine thing
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: chancy
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: Chinaman's chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: Chinaman's chance in hell
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: Come By Chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: dog's chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: even chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: fair chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: fat chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: fighting chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: first-chance exception
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: game of chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: give chance to
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: half a chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: half-chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: happenchance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: happy chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: in with a chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: jump at the chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: jump on the chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: last chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: last chance saloon
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: leave to chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: main chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: mum chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: no chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: not a chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: off chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: off-chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: on the off chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: outside chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: overchance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: perchance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: second chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: shutter chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: slim chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: smart chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: snowball's chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: snowball's chance in an oven
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: snowball's chance in heck
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: snowball's chance in hell
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: snowflake's chance in hell
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: sporting chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: stand a chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: take a chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: take one's chance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: unchance
sense: Terms derived from the noun chance
word: wanchance