coincidence
Americannoun
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a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance.
Our meeting in Venice was pure coincidence.
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the condition or fact of coinciding.
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an instance of this.
noun
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a chance occurrence of events remarkable either for being simultaneous or for apparently being connected
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the fact, condition, or state of coinciding
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(modifier) electronics of or relating to a circuit that produces an output pulse only when both its input terminals receive pulses within a specified interval Compare anticoincidence
coincidence gate
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of coincidence
First recorded in 1595–1605; coincid(ent) + -ence
Explanation
People love to talk about strange coincidences––like you and your mother having the same birthday, or two unrelated families named "The Martins" living next door to each other. A coincidence is something that's not planned or arranged but seems like it is. Technically, a coincidence is an occurrence of events that happen at the same time by total accident––like you and a kid from your class at school both visit the Grand Canyon on the same day. Weird. If some guy is stalking you, always running into you wherever you go, this is not a coincidence. That guy has memorized your schedule.
Vocabulary lists containing coincidence
Wonder
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"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
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Twelve Angry Men
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The study does not establish that the asteroid barrage caused those changes, but the coincidence offers a compelling target for future research.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026
That they’ll meet again Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium seems more like destiny than coincidence, but who wins the reunion may be decided, in part, by factors other than the play on the field.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
But the coincidence lingers: a man punished for insisting on honest numbers, spending his final year unable to speak in public, his illness advancing in the silence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
He added it was a "strange coincidence" China's missile tracking ship, Yuan Wang 5, was in port in Fiji when the missile was fired.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
I’m pretty sure it’s not a coincidence that she looks straight at me when she says this.
From "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" by Ann Braden
“In a Charley Chase film life often seems like a stream of unfortunate coincidences designed primarily to embarrass, incriminate, or otherwise inconvenience Chase in his bid to be a good solid citizen.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Wright gave evidence, arguing many of the prosecution's arguments were coincidences.
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2026
That enigmatic response got the team at the brokerage Baird to look for coincidences between Dorsey and Satoshi.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 25, 2025
The main characters’ tales aren’t manipulated by forced coincidences — they simply overlap.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2025
“That’s fate! It’s like you were meant to be friends! There are no coincidences, Virgil Salinas.”
From "Hello, Universe" by Erin Entrada Kelly
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.
