Other forms: cases
A case is a situation being talked about — in that case, in most cases, a case of mistaken identity. It is the word English reaches for when it wants to point at a set of circumstances without describing them.
In court it is the matter being argued, and in a suitcase or a violin case it is the thing shaped to hold and protect what goes inside. The phrase to watch is in case: bring an umbrella in case it rains means bring it because rain is possible, not because rain is expected.
1nouninstanceOne example of a situation, or the situation itself.~38%
“In that case we should leave earlier.”
2nouncourtA matter argued and decided in a court of law.~60%
“The case lasted three weeks.”
3nouncaseA container shaped to protect one particular thing.~2%
“She snapped the violin case shut.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 16 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense (3 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
A case is what befalls you. Latin cāsus is the past participle of cadō, to fall, which is why a court case, a grammatical case and in any case all begin with something dropping into your lap.
Middle English
cas
English, today
case
Built from
From Middle English cas. From Middle English cas, from Old French cas (“an event”), from Latin cāsus (“a falling, a fall; accident, event, occurrence; occasion, opportunity; noun case”), perfect passive participle of cadō (“to fall, to drop”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA