happenstance
[hap-uh n-stans]
- a chance happening or event.
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Origin of happenstance
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for happenstance
Contemporary Examples
All of these differences add up to make each planet unique, a product of happenstance and history.
The success that followed 16 years later was a matter of happenstance, not of strategy.
Historical Examples
The German was just a happenstance, a castaway in the war for Arzachel.
First on the MoonJeff Sutton
But the happenstance habits of nature were steadily being integrated into the control program of man.
The Thirst QuenchersRick Raphael
Out of the chaos of happenstance they were finding rules of order, certain formulas of behavior, equations of force.
EmpireClifford Donald Simak
This is contrasted to happenstance decision making based on impulsiveness and wishful thinking.
Sequential Problem SolvingFredric Lozo
As for deceased, his ontimely evaporation that a-way is but the frootes of happenstance.
Faro Nell and Her FriendsAlfred Henry Lewis
happenstance
- chance
- a chance occurrence
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for happenstance
n.
1897, from happening + ending from circumstance.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper