• IPA: /tʃæns/
  • (America, Canada) IPA: [tʃʰɛəns], [tʃʰeəns]
  • (Northern England, AU, Ireland) IPA: [tʃʰæns], [tʃʰans]
• IPA: /tʃɑːns/
  • (RP, Cockney) IPA: [tʃʰɑːns]
  • (New Zealand) IPA: [tʃʰɐːns]

chance

1. (countable) An opportunity or possibility.

   We had the chance to meet the president last week.

2. (uncountable) Random occurrence; luck.

   Why leave it to chance when a few simple steps will secure the desired outcome?

3. (countable) The probability of something happening.

   There is a 30 percent chance of rain tomorrow.

4. (countable, archaic) What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.

• (random occurrence) fortune, hap; see also Thesaurus:luck

• French: chance
• German: Gelegenheit, Möglichkeit, Chance
• Italian: possibilità, opportunità, chance
• Portuguese: chance
• Russian: возмо́жность
• Spanish: oportunidad, posibilidad, chance

• French: raccroc
• German: Zufall
• Portuguese: acaso
• Russian: случа́йность
• Spanish: azar, suerte, casualidad

• French: (beneficial) chance, (detrimental, risky) risque
• German: Wahrscheinlichkeit
• Italian: probabilità
• Portuguese: probabilidade
• Russian: вероя́тность
• Spanish: probabilidad

• Spanish: albur

chance (not comparable)

1. Happening by chance, casual.
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, ch. VI, The Shoe Maker (Heron Book Centennial Edition)

     No crowd was about the door; no people were discernible at any of the many windows; not even a chance passer-by was in the street. An unnatural silence and desertion reigned there.

chance (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Perchance; perhaps.

chance (chances, present participle chancing; past and past participle chanced)

1. (archaic, intransitive) To happen by chance, to occur.

   It chanced that I found a solution the very next day.

   • Bible, Deuteronomy xxii. 6

     if a bird's nest chance to be before thee

   • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene i]:

     I chanced on this letter.

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present (book), book 2, ch. XV, Practical — Devotional

     Once […] it chanced that Geoffrey Riddell Bishop of Ely, a Prelate rather troublesome to Samson of Tottington, made a request of him for timber from his woods towards certain edifices going on at Glemsford.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII

     Mr. Mason, shivering as some one chanced to open the door, asked for more coal to be put on the fire, which had burnt out its flame, though its mass of cinder still shone hot and red. The footman who brought the coal, in going out, stopped near Mr. Eshton's chair, and said something to him in a low voice, of which I heard only the words, "old woman,"—"quite troublesome."

2. (archaic, transitive) To befall; to happen to.
3. To try or risk.

   Shall we carry the umbrella, or chance a rainstorm?

   • Come what will, I will chance it.

4. To discover something by chance.

   He chanced upon a kindly stranger who showed him the way.

5. (Belize) To rob, cheat or swindle someone.

   The car broke down a week after I bought it. I was chanced by that fast-talking salesman.

• (to happen) come to pass, occur, transpire; See also Thesaurus:happen
• (to happen to)
• (to try) test
• (to discover something) come across, come on, come upon, encounter, stumble upon
• (to cheat someone) deceive, fool, trick; See also Thesaurus:deceive

• IPA: /tʃæns/
  • (America, Canada) IPA: [tʃʰɛəns~tʃʰeəns]
  • (Northern England, AU, Ireland) IPA: [tʃʰæns~tʃʰans]
• IPA: /tʃɑːns/
  • (RP, Cockney) IPA: [tʃʰɑːns]
  • (New Zealand) IPA: [tʃʰɐːns]

1. A male given name, an American pet form of Chauncey, in modern usage also associated with the word chance.