happenstance
Americannoun
noun
-
chance
-
a chance occurrence
Etymology
Origin of happenstance
First recorded in 1895–1900; happen + (circum)stance
Explanation
A happenstance is a coincidental event. If you call your brother on the phone, that's intentional. If you bump into him in a restaurant, it's happenstance. Happenstance is a combination of the words, happen and circumstance. Whereas circumstances are the conditions that surround an event, happenstance is the event itself. If you have no food at home so you go out to eat and sit next to a charming person who you end up marrying, your meeting was happenstance and your being hungry and having no food at home were the circumstances.
Vocabulary lists containing happenstance
Portmanteaus: Vocab Mash-Ups
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The Things They Carried
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This Week In Culture: Current Events Vocab for October 24–30, 2020
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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.
"USCIS's hold on adjudications cannot be attributed to anything that these individuals did wrong; rather, it arises solely by the happenstance of their birth," the judge said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
What cemented his place there was half happenstance: his no-nonsense, on-the-scene reportage of the 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympics, which occurred while he was filling in at “SportsCenter.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 9, 2025
Many of Burns’ works do, purely by happenstance.
From Salon ● Nov. 15, 2025
Michelle is fluent in the perky command, the passive voice, the slippery non-apology, the kind of language that frames cruelty as blameless happenstance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2025
She considers the vagaries of sports, the happenstance of El Li'der, a star pitcher in his youth, narrowly missing a baseball career in America.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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.
