chance 
(ch
ns)
KEY NOUN:
- The unknown and unpredictable element in happenings that seems to have no assignable cause.
- A force assumed to cause events that cannot be foreseen or controlled; luck: Chance will determine the outcome.
- The likelihood of something happening; possibility or probability. Often used in the plural: Chances are good that you will win. Is there any chance of rain?
- An accidental or unpredictable event.
- A favorable set of circumstances; an opportunity: a chance to escape.
- A risk or hazard; a gamble: took a chance that the ice would hold me.
- Games A raffle or lottery ticket.
- Baseball An opportunity to make a putout or an assist that counts as an error if unsuccessful.
ADJECTIVE: - Caused by or ascribable to chance; unexpected, random, or casual: a chance encounter; a chance result.
VERB: chanced,
chanc·ing,
chanc·es VERB: intr.- To come about by chance; occur: It chanced that the train was late that day.
VERB: tr.- To take the risk or hazard of: not willing to chance it.
PHRASAL VERB: chance on or
upon- To find or meet accidentally; happen upon: While in Paris we chanced on two old friends.
IDIOMS: by chance
- Without plan; accidentally: They met by chance on a plane.
- Possibly; perchance: Is he, by chance, her brother?
on the off chance- In the slight hope or possibility.
ETYMOLOGY:Middle English,
unexpected event, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *
cadentia, from Latin
cad
ns, cadent- present participle of
cadere,
to fall, befall; see
kad- in Indo-European roots
SYNONYMS: chance, random, casual, haphazard, desultory
These adjectives apply to what is determined not by deliberation but by accident.
Chance stresses lack of premeditation:
a chance meeting with a friend. Random implies the absence of a specific pattern or objective:
took a random guess. Casual often suggests an absence of due concern:
a casual observation. Haphazard implies a carelessness or a willful leaving to chance:
a haphazard plan of action. Desultory suggests a shifting about from one thing to another that reflects a lack of method:
a desultory conversation. See also Synonyms at
happen,
opportunity.
