chance
Americannoun
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chances
plural
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the absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled: often personified or treated as a positive agency.
Chance governs all.
- Antonyms:
- necessity
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luck or fortune.
a game of chance.
-
a possibility or probability of anything happening.
a fifty-percent chance of success.
- Synonyms:
- contingency
-
an opportune or favorable time; opportunity.
Now is your chance.
- Synonyms:
- opening
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Baseball. an opportunity to field the ball and make a putout or an assist.
-
a risk or hazard.
Take a chance.
-
a share or ticket in a lottery or prize drawing.
The charity is selling chances for a dollar each.
-
chances, probability.
The chances are that the train hasn't left yet.
-
Midland and Southern U.S. a quantity or number (usually followed byof ).
a fine chance of tomatoes, harvested fresh from the garden today.
-
Archaic. an unfortunate event; mishap.
verb (used without object)
-
chances,
present (3rd person singular)
-
chanced,
past participle, past
-
chancing
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
chances,
present (3rd person singular)
-
chanced,
past participle, past
-
chancing
present participle
adjective
verb phrase
idioms
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on the off chance, in the very slight hope or against the very slight possibility.
I’m free Friday, on the off chance that you end up with a spare ticket to the concert.
-
on the chance, in the mild hope or against the possibility.
I'll wait on the chance that she'll come.
-
by chance, without plan or intent; accidentally.
I met her again by chance in a department store in Paris.
noun
-
-
the unknown and unpredictable element that causes an event to result in a certain way rather than another, spoken of as a real force
-
( as modifier )
a chance meeting
-
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fortune; luck; fate
-
an opportunity or occasion
-
a risk; gamble
you take a chance with his driving
-
the extent to which an event is likely to occur; probability
-
an unpredicted event, esp a fortunate one
that was quite a chance, finding him here
-
archaic an unlucky event; mishap
-
-
accidentally
he slipped by chance
-
perhaps
do you by chance have a room?
-
-
it is likely (that) …
-
acting on the possibility; in case
-
the opportunity for personal gain (esp in the phrase an eye to the main chance )
verb
-
(tr) to risk; hazard
I'll chance the worst happening
-
to happen by chance; be the case by chance
I chanced to catch sight of her as she passed
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to come upon by accident
he chanced on the solution to his problem
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to attempt to do something although the chance of success may be slight
Synonym Usage
See happen.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
chancesimple
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chancessimple
-
have chancedperfect
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has chancedperfect
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am chancingprogressive
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are chancingprogressive
-
is chancingprogressive
-
have been chancingperfect progressive
-
has been chancingperfect progressive
Past
-
chancedsimple
-
had chancedperfect
-
was chancingprogressive
-
were chancingprogressive
-
had been chancingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of chance
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English chaunce, chance, chea(u)nce, from Old French chance, cheance from unattested Vulgar Latin cadentia “a befalling, happening”; see cadenza
Explanation
A chance is a possibility — but it's not a sure thing. There could be a chance of rain today or a chance you'll be the lead in the school play. Chance is sometimes about opportunity, as in getting a chance to try out for the baseball team. Sometimes it's just luck, as in taking a chance on a new car through a raffle at school. You could meet someone by chance, and you could say, "I chanced upon him at a coffee shop." Sometimes the word implies danger, as in "He took a chance when he signed up for skydiving." In any case, a chance is never a sure thing.
Vocabulary lists containing chance
Statistics and Probability - Middle School
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Workshop 3, Part 1
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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:
Garcia improved to 26-2 with his 21st victory inside the distance and denied Benn, in his first world title bout, a chance to become a world champion like his father, England's Nigel Benn.
From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026
"I believe that if we don't slow down at the current rate of progress, there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Michigan was the butt of jokes all week after a lucky break put a second on the clock and gave Underwood another chance to complete a game-winning pass.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
"There is way more overlap than you would expect just by random chance between the genes that are associated with longevity and genes that are associated with viral interactions," he said.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 12, 2026
‘Let me take it to the World Spirit. It’s our only chance.’
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
Rybakina was unable to walk for several days after injuring her ankle in the Cincinnati Open quarter-finals, putting her chances of competing here in serious jeopardy.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
Hemp has netted 74 goals in 200 appearances and has created more chances from open play than any other player in the WSL's history.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
As AI agents are given more responsibility, the chances they could accidentally do something that could hurt humans increase.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Before the inflation report, the chances were about 70%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Our leaders and citizen activists pushed local, state, and federal governments and businesses for chances for Colored citizens.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
The odds on Tuesday for one rate hike in September were at 60%, while a second hike at the Fed’s December meeting was chanced at 36.7%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
While conducting research in the Prussian state archives in Berlin in the 1990s, he chanced upon the details of a “small vortex of turbulence” in Königsberg.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
Motie, having earlier hit Rashid's hat-trick ball for six, chanced his arm with a counter-attack and ended up adding 91 in 68 balls with Alzarri Joseph.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2025
He started out as a fiction writer who, while living in Paris, chanced upon avant-garde jazz and took up the saxophone.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2025
The crew shunned him when he walked the deck, and men would spit if his shadow chanced to fall upon them.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
If chancing the arm sounds simple, look what happened when Zak Crawley tried the same.
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2024
It’s very satisfying to see an actress like Ms. Kidman use everything in her artistic toolbox while also chancing the audience’s sympathy and love.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2018
“You’re always chancing it when you come back,” Romo said during his postgame news conference on Thanksgiving.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 3, 2015
BST12:54 79 mins: It’s not just the Germans who are chancing their arm from distance – Hayden’s dipping 30-yarder is tipped round the post by a flying Benaglio.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 26, 2015
“We will,” Lily replies, chancing a smile at me.
From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish
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.
