Chance (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

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noun
  1. the absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled: often personified or treated as a positive agency: Chance governs all.
  2. luck or fortune: a game of chance.
  3. a possibility or probability of anything happening: a fifty-percent chance of success.
  4. an opportune or favorable time; opportunity: Now is your chance.
  5. an opportunity to field the ball and make a putout or an assist.
  6. a risk or hazard: Take a chance.
  7. a share or ticket in a lottery or prize drawing: The charity is selling chances for a dollar each.
  8. probability: The chances are that the train hasn't left yet.
  9. a quantity or number (usually followed by of): a fine chance of tomatoes, harvested fresh from the garden today.
  10. an unfortunate event; mishap.
verb (used without object), chanced, chanc·ing.
  1. to happen or occur by chance: It chanced that our arrivals coincided.
verb (used with object), chanced, chanc·ing.
  1. to take the chances or risks of; risk (often followed by impersonal it): I'll have to chance it, whatever the outcome.
adjective
  1. not planned or expected; accidental: a chance occurrence.
Verb Phrases
  1. to come upon by chance; meet unexpectedly: She chanced on a rare kind of mushroom during her walk through the woods.
Idioms
  1. without plan or intent; accidentally: I met her again by chance in a department store in Paris.
  2. in the mild hope or against the possibility: I'll wait on the chance that she'll come.
  3. in the very slight hope or against the very slight possibility: I’m free Friday, on the off chance that you end up with a spare ticket to the concert.
noun
    • the unknown and unpredictable element that causes an event to result in a certain way rather than another, spoken of as a real force
    • (as modifier)
  2. fortune; luck; fate
  3. an opportunity or occasion
  4. a risk; gamble
  5. the extent to which an event is likely to occur; probability
  6. an unpredicted event, esp a fortunate one
  7. an unlucky event; mishap
  8. by chance
    • accidentally
    • perhaps
  9. it is likely (that) …
  10. acting on the possibility; in case
  11. the opportunity for personal gain (esp in the phrase an eye to the main chance)
verb
  1. to risk; hazard
  2. to happen by chance; be the case by chance
  3. to come upon by accident
  4. to attempt to do something although the chance of success may be slight
Chance (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

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