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mischance

UK/mɪsˈtʃɑːns/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,488 of 15,258leans spoken

A mischance is a piece of bad luck. By mischance, a small mischance, an unhappy mischance.

It is milder and older-sounding than misfortune, and it usually names a single event rather than a condition. By mischance is the commonest phrase and means accidentally. Note the mis- meaning badly, as in mishap and mistake.

Definitions of mischance

  1. 1nounmischanceA piece of bad luck.C1

    “A series of mischances, from a flat tyre to a missed train, made us late for the wedding.”

mischance is bad luck.

Where it comes from

Old French meschance is mes-, badly, plus chance. Mishap is built the same way.

  1. Old French

    meschance

  2. Anglo-Norman

    meschance

  3. English, today

    mischance

From Anglo-Norman meschance, Old French meschance, meschaunce.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

mischance in the wild

  • By mischance, his negatives were lost, leaving only the prints he had made as his legacy, their colors slowly fading away.

    Andy Sweet

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.