Other forms: chances, chanced
A chance is an opening — a moment when something becomes possible, if you move. The chance to say your piece before the meeting ends; one last chance to catch the 8:40.
The same word carries the odds: a forty per cent chance of rain, no chance, chances are she already knows. It carries luck as well — we met by chance, a chance meeting, nothing planned by anyone. The grammar splits along those meanings, and it is worth learning: a chance TO do something is an opportunity, while the chance OF something happening is a probability. There is a verb too, living mostly in take a chance, chance it, and the bookish chance upon. Second chance, stand a chance and fat chance are all fixed phrases and all worth having.
1nounchanceA moment when something becomes possible for you.~30%
“Give me a chance to explain.”
2nounpossibilityThe possibility or likelihood that something will happen.~44%
“There is a small chance of frost tonight.”
3nounluckThe way things happen without anyone planning them; luck.~22%
“We found the place by chance.”
4verbriskyTo do something risky and hope it turns out well.~2%
“We chanced it without an umbrella and got soaked.”
5adjectiveplannedNot planned.~2%
“A chance remark at a party led to the job.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 14 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: opportunity
Chance came from Old French cheance, an accident or a piece of luck, from Vulgar Latin cadentia, a falling, from Latin cadere, to fall. It is about how things come down — the way the dice land. That same falling gave English cadence and cadenza, so a rhythm and a piece of luck are distant twins.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱh₂d-
Middle English
chaunce
English, today
chance
From Middle English chaunce. From Middle English chance, cheance, chaunce, cheaunce, a borrowing from Old French cheance (“accident, chance, luck”), from Vulgar Latin cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadere (“to fall, to die, to happen, occur”). a doublet of cadence and cadenza.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA