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chance
[ chans, chahns ]
noun
- the absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled: often personified or treated as a positive agency:
Chance governs all.
Antonyms:
- luck or fortune:
a game of chance.
Synonyms: ,
- a possibility or probability of anything happening:
a fifty-percent chance of success.
Synonyms:
- an opportune or favorable time; opportunity:
Now is your chance.
Synonyms:
- a risk or hazard:
Take a chance.
- a share or ticket in a lottery or prize drawing:
The charity is selling chances for a dollar each.
- chances, probability:
The chances are that the train hasn't left yet.
- Midland and Southern U.S. a quantity or number (usually followed by of ):
a fine chance of tomatoes, harvested fresh from the garden today.
- Archaic. an unfortunate event; mishap.
verb (used without object)
- to happen or occur by chance:
It chanced that our arrivals coincided.
Synonyms:
verb (used with object)
- to take the chances or risks of; risk (often followed by impersonal it ):
I'll have to chance it, whatever the outcome.
adjective
- not planned or expected; accidental:
a chance occurrence.
Synonyms: ,
verb phrase
- to come upon by chance; meet unexpectedly:
She chanced on a rare kind of mushroom during her walk through the woods.
chance
/ ³Ùʃɑ˲Բõ /
noun
- the unknown and unpredictable element that causes an event to result in a certain way rather than another, spoken of as a real force
- ( as modifier ) fortuitous
a chance meeting
- fortune; luck; fate
- an opportunity or occasion
- a risk; gamble
you take a chance with his driving
- the extent to which an event is likely to occur; probability
- an unpredicted event, esp a fortunate one
that was quite a chance, finding him here
- archaic.an unlucky event; mishap
- by chance
- accidentally
he slipped by chance
- perhaps
do you by chance have a room?
- chances are… or the chances are…it is likely (that) …
- on the chanceacting on the possibility; in case
- the main chancethe opportunity for personal gain (esp in the phrase an eye to the main chance )
verb
- tr to risk; hazard
I'll chance the worst happening
- to happen by chance; be the case by chance
I chanced to catch sight of her as she passed
- chance on or chance uponto come upon by accident
he chanced on the solution to his problem
- chance one's armto attempt to do something although the chance of success may be slight
Derived Forms
- ˈ³¦³ó²¹²Ô³¦±ð±ô±ð²õ²õ, adjective
- ˈ³¦³ó²¹²Ô³¦±ð´Ú³Ü±ô, adjective
Other ˜yÐÄvlog Forms
- ³¦³ó²¹²Ô³¦±ð·±ô±ð²õ²õ adjective
- ³Ü²Ô·³¦³ó²¹²Ô³¦±ð»å adjective
˜yÐÄvlog History and Origins
˜yÐÄvlog History and Origins
Origin of chance1
Idioms and Phrases
- by chance, without plan or intent; accidentally:
I met her again by chance in a department store in Paris.
- on the chance, in the mild hope or against the possibility:
I'll wait on the chance that she'll come.
- on the off chance, in the very slight hope or against the very slight possibility:
I’m free Friday, on the off chance that you end up with a spare ticket to the concert.
More idioms and phrases containing chance
- by chance
- Chinaman's chance
- eye to the main chance
- fat chance
- fighting chance
- jump at (the chance)
- not have an earthly chance
- on the (off) chance
- snowball's chance in hell
- sporting chance
- stand a chance
- take a chance
- take one's chances
Synonym Study
Example Sentences
He finally has a chance to be a hero, but he misses when he shoots.
Morgan increased its assessment of the risk of recession this year to 60%, up from a 40% chance it had published just days prior.
“Through the next 10 days or so there’s no specific chance for rain,†Schoenfeld said.
In 2024, following news of the Oasis reunion, he revealed he had turned down the chance of a reunion tour with The Smiths.
They watched for years as Israel targeted the Assad regime, and believed that Assad's fall would bring the chance for a less confrontational relationship with Israel.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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