serendipity
Americannoun
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an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
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accidental discovery, or an instance of this.
Alton’s premiere novel was a serendipity that affected my thinking in the most positive way.
-
good fortune; luck.
What serendipity—she got the first job she applied for!
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of serendipity
Serendip + -ity; coined in 1754 by English novelist Horace Walpole ( def. ) for an ability possessed by the heroes of a fairy tale called The Three Princes of Serendip, using a former name for Sri Lanka
Explanation
If you find good things without looking for them, serendipity — unexpected good luck — has brought them to you. Serendipity does not come from Latin or Greek, but rather was created by a British nobleman in the mid 1700s from an ancient Persian fairy tale. The meaning of the word, good luck in finding valuable things unintentionally, refers to the fairy tale characters who were always making discoveries through chance. You can thank serendipity if you find a pencil at an empty desk just as you walk into an exam and realize that you forgot yours.
Vocabulary lists containing serendipity
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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You Name It: Eponyms
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Some Obscure Eponyms
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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:
In an act of serendipity, he's lived here in a previous incarnation - this was also the home of Poldark, his breakthrough role.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
America’s system of pharmaceutical regulation treats generic-drug repurposing as serendipity rather than strategy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Yes, that’s why I like the word serendipity.
From Slate ● Mar. 2, 2026
The two messaged back and forth about the serendipity of it all, and needless to say, “the date went really well,” Derraugh said, smiling shyly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2025
After all, it’s not the outlandishness of its conclusions that makes something a pseudoscience: lucky guesses, serendipity, bizarre hypotheses, and even an initial gullibility all play a role in science as well.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
When she first came to New York, she was often hungry, surviving on nothing more than pizza slices and Orange Julius, but her life was full of serendipities.
From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
The dawning of knowledge, the instant of understanding, the way an idea comes together at once as if with the satisfying snap of a seat-belt buckle—such well-prepared serendipities are the mainsprings of “The Martian.”
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 9, 2015
The goal is to create strategic conversations, connecting people and creating serendipities.
From Forbes ● Dec. 5, 2014
"What a long strange trip it's been," from the 1970 Grateful Dead hit "Truckin'," has become a widely used description of life's serendipities.
From Reuters ● Sep. 16, 2013
Still, there are intriguing serendipities, such as the large amount of standout work in black-and-white or near-monochromatic palettes.
From Washington Post
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.
