hap
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hap¹
- /hæp/
Rhymes with -æp
Where it comes from
From Middle English hap, happe (“chance, hap, luck, fortune”), potentially cognate with or from Old English ġehæp (“fit, convenient”) and/or Old Norse happ (“hap, chance, good luck”), from Proto-Germanic *hampą (“convenience, happiness”), from Proto-Indo-European *kob- (“good fortune, prophecy; to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed”).
Cognate with Icelandic happ (“hap, chance, good luck”). Related also to Icelandic heppinn (“lucky, fortunate, happy”), Old Danish hap (“fortunate”), Swedish hampa (“to turn out”), Old Church Slavonic кобь (kobĭ, “fate”), Old Irish cob (“victory”).
The verb is from Middle English happen, perhaps from Old English hæppan (“to move accidentally, slip”) and/or from Old Norse *happa, *heppa, from Proto-Germanic *hampijaną (“to fit in, be fitting”), from the noun. Cognate with Old Danish happe (“to chance, happen”), Norwegian heppa (“to occur, happen”).
noun haps
- A person's lot (good or bad), luck, fortune, fate.
-
A stroke of good or bad luck, an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event.
Cursed be good haps, and cursed be they that build / Their hopes on haps, and do not make despair / For all these certain blows the surest shield.
Similar: hazard
Similar: serendipity
verb haps · happing · happed
-
To happen; to befall; to chance.
"But laudably, since thus it happed!" quoth one: Whereat, more witness and the case postponed. "Thus it happed not, since thus he did the deed,....
Similar: come to pass, occur, transpire, bechance, befall, behap, belimp, betide, betime, beworth, chance, come about
- To happen to. What meaneth June, to hap us every year.
hap²
- /hæp/
Rhymes with -æp
noun haps
-
Happenings; events; goings-on.
Katie Griffin as Samantha Sparks: "Hey, Flint. I heard your extended (gasp) earlier. What's the haps?"
Mark Edwards as Flint Lockwood: "The haps is -- you're not going to believe this, but dad asked me to make him an invention!"
Similar: affairs
hap³
- /hæp/
Rhymes with -æp
Where it comes from
Inherited from Old English hap.
noun haps
- A wrap, such as a quilt or a comforter. Also, a small or folded blanket placed on the end of a bed to keep feet warm.
verb haps · happing · happed
- To wrap, clothe. Bless thy pretty heart! The bairn’s sick. Come wi’ me, and I’ll hap thee up somewhere. If thou wert a bit cleaner I’d put thee in my own bed, for the Lord’s sake.
hap⁴
- /hæp/
Rhymes with -æp
Where it comes from
Shortening of New Latin Haplochromis.
noun haps
- Any of the cichlid fishes of the tribe Haplochromini.
HAP⁵
noun HAPs
-
Abbreviation of hospital-acquired pneumonia
Similar: NP
- Initialism of hazardous air pollutant The purpose of this program is to reduce 75% of the cancer incidence resulting from area sources (defined as stationary sources which emit less than 10 tons of a single HAP or 25 tons of a combination of HAPs) of hazardous air pollutants in urban areas.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: happen, occur, take place, go on, come about, pass off, pass, chance, fortune, happy, hop, eta, py, summer, pdt, hair
noun
Similar: serendipity
Translations
Every language
noun luck, fortune, fate
| Français | heur |
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Talk about this word "hap." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/hap. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. hap. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/hap "hap." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/hap.Cite this
@misc{hap_2026,
title = {hap},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/hap},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
