chance
noun
the absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled: often personified or treated as a positive agency.
had chanced
-
past perfectof chance.past perfect
Used to express a completed action that took place before another specific past action occurred.
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.
But in the village community centre, the whispers began seven weeks ago when one of the coffee morning regulars said she knew someone who had chanced upon a bag of £20 notes.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 19, 2019
I had chanced upon and spoken to Kennedy when he was running in the 1960 West Virginia presidential primary, but when I told Glenn about the encounter, he winced.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 8, 2016
Ms. Lee’s lawyer, Tonja B. Carter, had chanced upon it, attached to an original typescript of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” while looking through Ms. Lee’s papers, the publishers explained.
From New York Times ● Feb. 19, 2016
Imagine that an intermediate species, say Australopithecus afarensis, had chanced to survive and was discovered in a remote part of Africa.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2014
It was another copy of the photograph of Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford at the Party function in New York, which he had chanced upon eleven years ago and promptly destroyed.
From "1984" by George Orwell
