hap
noun
one's luck or lot.
hap
1 American
[hap]
/ hæp /
noun
-
one's luck or lot.
-
an occurrence, happening, or accident.
verb (used without object)
happed,
happing
hap
2
American
[hap, ap]
/ hæp, æp /
noun
verb (used with object)
Hap
3
American
[hahp, kh ahp]
/ hɑp, xɑp /
noun
Egyptian Religion.
hap
1
British
/ hæp /
noun
-
luck; chance
-
an occurrence
verb
hap
2
British
/ hæp /
verb
noun
Etymology
Origin of hap1
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English, from Old Norse happ “luck, chance”; akin to Old English gehæp “fit, convenient”; probably akin to Old Church Slavonic kobŭ “auspice,” Old Irish cob “victory”
Origin of hap2
1350–1400; Middle English happen to cover; perhaps blend of lappen lap 2 and Old French happer to seize
Vocabulary lists containing hap
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:
Ngheu and chem chap hap sa, steamed clams and mussels, come in a buttery lemongrass broth.
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2022
How then had a man so singularly drained of hap as the 57-year-old Israeli ended up controlling Chelsea, Portsmouth and West Ham United?
From The Guardian ● Jul. 14, 2011
In Tallahassee, Fla., 16-year-old Harold Knowles, one of three Negroes to start classes at Leon High School, said: "I expected some friction, but nothing hap pened."
From Time Magazine Archive
Angleton and Harvey deserve to be judged by what did not hap pen, by what the Soviets were unable to achieve while they had the watch.
From Time Magazine Archive
When one has such a dream and the predicted event hap pens, it’s hard not to believe in precognition.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
CGS International maintains an overweight rating on Malaysia’s plantation sector and continues to favor upstream companies including TA Ann and Hap Seng Plantations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
Lansdale, the genre bard of East Texas, brings the deeply flawed and deeply human crime-fighting duo Hap and Leonard back for a 14th time.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2025
One hundred years ago this Thursday, goalie Hap Holmes and his exhausted Seattle Metropolitans were fighting to extend not only an epic overtime battle but their very franchise.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2024
The other defining event of his childhood seems to have been an accident involving his older brother, Hap, and a wagon that led to the amputation of one of Hap’s legs.
From New York Times ● Aug. 23, 2021
The boatswain infers that they cannot make peaceful weather of the present storm. 367-7 Hap means happen. 367-8 The word complexion here means bent or inclination.
From Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8 by Charles Herbert Sylvester
Local clan leader Mohamed Abdirahman described the attack as horrible, adding that such an atrocity had never happed in the region before.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2022
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy's chief of staff, said this week the president had chosen Feb. 16 as the patriotic holiday partly ironically, in response to media reports an invasion could happed on Wednesday.
From Reuters ● Feb. 16, 2022
Much of what happed during Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Putin at a Group of 20 summit in Japan in 2019 isn’t known.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 28, 2021
"There's a big difference between with what happed with Jared and what happened with Chick-fil-A," said Carlton, who noted that Subway cut ties with Fogle.
From US News ● Aug. 19, 2015
He went on: “And you consate that all these steans be aboon folk that be happed here, snod an’ snog?”
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
And I actually listen to what these professionals say, keeping all of my self-diagnoses and Googled explanations for what's happing to my body to myself.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2020
"It is heart-breaking what is happing in Libya," said one customer, who gave his name only as Ismael.
From Reuters ● Aug. 25, 2011
So I stretched myself out, and my dear son laid himself at my back, and the worthy man happing us with his plaid, we soon fell asleep.
From Ringan Gilhaize or The Covenanters by John Galt
Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing, That, in the merry months o' spring, Delighted me to hear thee sing, What comes o' thee?
From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume I (of 2) by John Lyde Wilson
Ilk happing bird, wee helpless thing, That in the merry months o' spring Delighted me to hear thee sing, What comes o' thee?
From A Year in the Fields by John Burroughs
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.
