chance
a possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstances
How often you will meet it
Rank 518 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 38,142 times across 175,160 chapters — 0.018% of every word in the library.
It belongs to the first 1,000 words, the band worth learning before any other.
What it means
noun
- a possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstances also: opportunity the holiday gave us the opportunity to visit Washingtonnow is your chance
- an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another also: luck, fortune, hazard bad luck caused his downfallwe ran into each other by pure chance
- a risk involving danger you take a chance when you let her drive
- a measure of how likely it is that some event will occur; a number expressing the ratio of favorable cases to the whole number of cases possible also: probability the probability that an unbiased coin will fall with the head up is 0.5if that phone call is for me, chances are it's my wife
- the possibility of future success also: prospect his prospects as a writer are excellent
verb
- be the case by chance I chanced to meet my old friend in the street
- take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome also: gamble, risk, hazard, take chances, adventure, run a risk When you buy these stocks you are gambling
- come upon, as if by accident; meet with also: find, happen, bump, encounter We find this idea in PlatoI happened upon the most wonderful bakery not very far from here
chance in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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A one-man chance isn't enough to take help.
The Courage of the Commonplace · Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews · Chapter 1
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Thought the least I could do was to give you a chance.
The Abandoned Room · Wadsworth Camp · Chapter 1
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She never let slip a chance to help any one in any way.
Emily Fox-Seton · Frances Hodgson Burnett · Chapter 1
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I don't want to scoff At chance bad luck, but you have not come off!
Punch — Volume 99, August 16, 1890 · Various · Chapter 1
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They drifted about Europe for months--sometimes alone, sometimes with chance met gipsies of their own land.
Actions and reactions · Rudyard Kipling · Chapter 1