chance

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noun

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.

luck or fortune: a game of chance.

a possibility or probability of anything happening: a fifty-percent chance of success.

an opportune or favorable time; opportunity: Now is your chance.

Baseball. an opportunity to field the ball and make a put-out or assist.

a risk or hazard: Take a chance.

a share or ticket in a lottery or prize drawing: The charity is selling chances for a dollar each.

chances, probability: The chances are that the train hasn't left yet.

Midland and Southern U.S. a quantity or number (usually followed by of ).

10.

Archaic. an unfortunate event; mishap.

verb (used without object)

11.

to happen or occur by chance: It chanced that our arrivals coincided.

00:10

Chance is one of our favorite verbs.

So is yaff. Does it mean:

to bark; yelp.

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

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verb (used with object)

12.

to take the chances or risks of; risk (often followed by impersonal it ): I'll have to chance it, whatever the outcome.

adjective

13.

not planned or expected; accidental: a chance occurrence.

Verb phrases

14.

chance onupon, to come upon by chance; meet unexpectedly: She chanced on a rare kind of mushroom during her walk through the woods.

Idioms

15.

by chance, without plan or intent; accidentally: I met her again by chance in a department store in Paris.

16.

on the chance, in the mild hope or against the possibility: I'll wait on the chance that she'll come.

17.

on the off chance, in the very slight hope or against the very slight possibility.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English < Old French chance, cheance < Vulgar Latin *cadentia a befalling, happening; see cadenza

Related forms

chance·less, adjective

un·chanced, adjective

Synonyms
2. accident, fortuity. 3. contingency. 4. opening. 11. befall. See happen. 13. casual, fortuitous.

Antonyms
1. necessity.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To chance

Collins

World English Dictionary

chance (tʃɑːns)

—n
1.	a. the unknown and unpredictable element that causes an event to result in a certain way rather than another, spoken of as a real force
	b. (as modifier): a chance meeting Related: fortuitous
2.	fortune; luck; fate
3.	an opportunity or occasion
4.	a risk; gamble: you take a chance with his driving
5.	the extent to which an event is likely to occur; probability
6.	an unpredicted event, esp a fortunate one: that was quite a chance, finding him here
7.	archaic an unlucky event; mishap
8.	by chance
	a. accidentally: he slipped by chance
	b. perhaps: do you by chance have a room?
9.	chances are…, the chances are… it is likely (that) …
10.	on the chance acting on the possibility; in case
11.	the main chance the opportunity for personal gain (esp in the phrase an eye to the main chance)

—vb
12.	(tr) to risk; hazard: I'll chance the worst happening
13.	to happen by chance; be the case by chance: I chanced to catch sight of her as she passed
14.	chance on, chance upon to come upon by accident: he chanced on the solution to his problem
15.	chance one's arm to attempt to do something although the chance of success may be slight

Related: fortuitous

[C13: from Old French cheance, from cheoir to fall, occur, from Latin cadere]

'chanceful

—*adj*

'chanceless

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

chance

c.1300, from O.Fr. cheance "accident, the falling of dice," from V.L. cadentia "that which falls out," from L. cadentem (nom. cadens), prp. of cadere "to fall" (see case (1)). Notions of "opportunity" and "randomness" are equally old in Eng. The verb meaning "to risk" is from 1859.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Easton

Bible Dictionary

Chance definition

(Luke 10:31). "It was not by chance that the priest came down by that road at that time, but by a specific arrangement and in exact fulfilment of a plan; not the plan of the priest, nor the plan of the wounded traveller, but the plan of God. By coincidence (Gr. sungkuria) the priest came down, that is, by the conjunction of two things, in fact, which were previously constituted a pair in the providence of God. In the result they fell together according to the omniscient Designer's plan. This is the true theory of the divine government." Compare the meeting of Philip with the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26, 27). There is no "chance" in God's empire. "Chance" is only another word for our want of knowledge as to the way in which one event falls in with another (1 Sam. 6:9; Eccl. 9:11).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

chance

In addition to the idioms beginning with chance, also see by chance; Chinaman's chance; eye to the main chance; fat chance; fighting chance; jump at (the chance); not have an earthly chance; on the (off) chance; snowball's chance in hell; sporting chance; stand a chance; take a chance; take one's chances.