perhaps

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   an action that might occur by chance

   Perhaps I will call tomorrow.

2. 2
   adv

   Possibly.

   Perhaps John will come over for dinner.

3. 3
   adv

   By chance.

   […] will live until he dies perhaps, and then lie down in clover.

4. 4
   noun

   An uncertainty.

   I cannot conceive what atheism, or skepticism, or positivism could do for me now, with their negations, and endless and contradictory perhapses, and perhapses, and perhapses.

Etymology

From Middle English perhappes, perhappous, variant of earlier perhap (“perhaps, possibly”), equivalent to per + hap (“chance, coincidence”) + -s, on model of Middle English parchaunce (modern perchance).