chance

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a risk involving danger

   We take a chance when we sky dive, but the thrill is worth it.

2. 2
   verb

   to come upon, as if by accident

   I chanced upon my neighbor at the grocery store.

3. 3
   verb

   to be the case by chance

   I chanced to meet my old friend in the street

4. 4
   noun

   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.

5. 5
   noun

   Random occurrence; luck.

   Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?

6. 6
   noun

   The probability of something happening.

   There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.

7. 7
   noun

   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.

8. 8
   noun

   What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.

   1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London 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.

Etymology

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.