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Chance

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chance¹

  • /t͡ʃɑːns/ [t͡ʃʰɑːns] UK, Southern England
  • /t͡ʃäːns/ [t͡ʃʰäːns]
  • /t͡ʃɐːns/ [t͡ʃʰɐːns]
  • [t͡ʃɑːns] India
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰæns] US
  • /t͡ʃans/ [t͡ʃʰans] Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰeə̯ns] Canada, US
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰɛə̯ns] Canada, US
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰeə̯nts ~ t͡ʃʰɛə̯nts]
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰeːns] Australia

Rhymes with -ɑːns, -æns

Where it comes from

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.

noun chances · chaunce

  1. countable 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.
  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, plural, uncountable probability; possibility. 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.
  5. archaic, countable 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.

adjective chaunce

  1. not comparable 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.

adverb chaunce

  1. not comparable, obsolete Perchance; perhaps.

chance²

  • /t͡ʃɑːns/ [t͡ʃʰɑːns] UK, Southern England
  • /t͡ʃäːns/ [t͡ʃʰäːns]
  • /t͡ʃɐːns/ [t͡ʃʰɐːns]
  • [t͡ʃɑːns] India
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰæns] US
  • /t͡ʃans/ [t͡ʃʰans] Northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰeə̯ns] Canada, US
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰɛə̯ns] Canada, US
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰeə̯nts ~ t͡ʃʰɛə̯nts]
  • /t͡ʃæns/ [t͡ʃʰeːns] Australia

Rhymes with -ɑːns, -æns

Where it comes from

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

verb chances · chancing · chanced · chaunce

  1. archaic, intransitive To happen by chance, to occur. It chanced that I found a solution the very next day.
  2. archaic, transitive To befall; to happen to. […] 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?
  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. The car broke down a week after I bought it. I was chanced by that fast-talking salesman.
  6. Nigeria To take an opportunity from someone; to cut a queue.

Similar: occur, transpire, come on, come upon, encounter, stumble upon, fool, trick, come to pass

Chance³

  • /t͡ʃæns/
  • [t͡ʃʰɛəns~t͡ʃʰeəns] Canada, US
  • [t͡ʃʰæns~t͡ʃʰans] Australia, Ireland, Northern England
  • /t͡ʃɑːns/
  • [t͡ʃʰɑːns] Cockney, UK
  • [t͡ʃʰɐːns] New Zealand

Rhymes with -ɑːns, -æns

proper noun Chances

  1. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Adair County, Kentucky, United States.
  2. countable, uncountable A census-designated place in Somerset County, Maryland, United States.
  3. countable, uncountable A census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma, United States.
  4. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Perkins County, South Dakota, United States.
  5. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Essex County, Virginia, United States.
  6. countable, uncountable A male given name from English, an American pet form of Chauncey, in modern usage also associated with the word chance.
  7. countable, uncountable A surname.

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