chance

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“
'But a chance is a chance, and a drowning man will catch at a straw.

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Definitions (53)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (16)

  1. noun The unknown and unpredictable element in happenings that seems to have no assignable cause.
  2. noun A force assumed to cause events that cannot be foreseen or controlled; luck: Chance will determine the outcome.
  3. noun The likelihood of something happening; possibility or probability. Often used in the plural: Chances are good that you will win. Is there any chance of rain?
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Examples (50)

  • The conductor takes a chance, the performers take a chance, and the audience takes a chance -- but the guy who takes the biggest chance is the composer. —  The Real Frank Zappa Book
  • But to say the other teams from the Big 10 don't deserve a chance is a little harsh. —  Sports News : CBSSports.com
  • Excited because the chance is there for growth; depressed because Florida may not grab the chance by putting its own money forth to get projects going and earn federal support. —  news | SH | http://www.heraldtribune.com
  • Denilson will need to make his mark at club level and the chance is there, particularly now Mathieu Flamini and Gilberto have left. —  Arsenal FC News Feed
  • Always there stood out in her memory the scene on the hill, how he faced her there and told her that, great as the chance was and imperative as the call, yet he would not go; he could not leave her, he said, and then and there poured out his love for her. —  Quisanté
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

possibility ·  opportunity ·  hope ·  prospect ·  idea ·  sign ·  risk ·  result ·  reason ·  circumstance

Used in the same contextWord Family

chance:   Chance ·  chances ·  chanced
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, unexpected event, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *cadentia, from Latin cadēns, cadent-, present participle of cadere, to fall, befall; see kad- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Early modern English also chaunce, from Middle English chance, chaunce, cheance, cheaunce = Middle High German schanze, schantz, from Old French cheance, chaance, French chance, chance, hazard, risk, luck, = Provencal cazensa = Italian cadenza, from Middle Latin cadentia, that which falls out, especially favorably (particularly used in dice-playing), from Latin caden(t-) s, present participle of cadere, fall: see cadent, cadence, cadenza, and case.
  2. from chance, n.
  3. Perhaps only in the following passage, where it is often printed' chance; short for perchance or by chance.
 

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/tʃæns/
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