chance

/tʃˈæns/ · 1 syllable

Meaning

noun

a possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstances
“the holiday gave us the opportunity to visit Washington”
an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another
“bad luck caused his downfall”
a risk involving danger
“you take a chance when you let her drive”
a measure of how likely it is that some event will occur; a number expressing the ratio of favorable cases to the whole number of cases possible
“the probability that an unbiased coin will fall with the head up is 0.5”
the possibility of future success
“his prospects as a writer are excellent”

verb

be the case by chance
“I chanced to meet my old friend in the street”
take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome
“When you buy these stocks you are gambling”
come upon, as if by accident; meet with
“We find this idea in Plato”

adjective

occurring or appearing or singled out by chance
“seek help from casual passers-by”

Developers: get definitions, synonyms, antonyms, rhymes and pronunciation for 147,000 words as JSON with the English Dictionary API (free trial).