 10 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
chance
adjective: occurring or appearing or singled out by chance; "their
accidental meeting led to a renewal of their
friendship"; "seek help from casual passers-by"; "a
casual meeting"; "a chance occurrence" [syn: {accidental},
{casual}, {chance(a)}]
noun
1: a possibility due to a favorable combination of
circumstances; "the holiday gave us the opportunity to
visit Washington"; "now is your chance" [syn: {opportunity}]
2: an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event
to result one way rather than another; "bad luck caused
his downfall"; "we ran into each other by pure chance"
[syn: {luck}, {fortune}, {hazard}]
3: a risk involving danger; "you take a chance when you let her
drive"
4: a measure of how likely it is that some event will occur;
"what is the probability of rain?"; "we have a good chance
of winning" [syn: {probability}]
verb
1: be the case by chance; "I chanced to meet my old friend in
the street"
2: take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome; "When you
buy these stocks you are gambling" [syn: {gamble}, {risk},
{hazard}, {take chances}, {adventure}, {run a risk}, {take
a chance}]
3: come upon, as if by accident; meet with; "We find this idea
in Plato"; "I happened upon the most wonderful bakery not
very far from here"; "She chanced upon an interesting book
in the bookstore the other day" [syn: {find}, {happen}, {bump},
{encounter}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Chance \Chance\, adjective
Happening by chance; casual.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Chance \Chance\, adverb
By chance; perchance. --Gray.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Chance \Chance\ (ch[.a]ns), noun [F. chance, OF. cheance, fr. LL.
cadentia a allusion to the falling of the dice), fr. L.
cadere to fall; akin to Skr. [,c]ad to fall, L. cedere to
yield, E. cede. Cf. {Cadence}.]
1. A supposed material or psychical agent or mode of activity
other than a force, law, or purpose; fortune; fate; -- in
this sense often personified.
It is strictly and philosophically true in nature
and reason that there is no such thing as chance or
accident; it being evident that these words do not
signify anything really existing, anything that is
truly an agent or the cause of any event; but they
signify merely men's ignorance of the real and
immediate cause. --Samuel
Clark.
Note: Many of the everyday events which people observe and
attribute to chance fall into the category described by
Clark, as being in practice too complex for people to
easily predict, but in theory predictable if one were
to know the actions of the causal agents in great
detail. At the subatomic level, however, there is much
evidence to support the notion derived from
Heisenberg's uncertaintly principle, that phenomena
occur in nature which are truly randomly determined,
not merely too complex to predict or observe
accurately. Such phenomena, however, are observed only
with one or a very small number of subatomic particles.
When the probabilities of observed events are
determined by the behavior of aggregates of millions of
particles, the variations due to such quantum
indeterminacy becomes so small as to be unobservable
even over billions of repetitions, and may therefore be
ignored in practical situations; such variations are so
improbable that it would be irrational to condition
anything of consequence upon the occurrence of such an
improbable event. A clever experimenter, nevertheless,
may contrive a system where a very visible event (such
as the dynamiting of a building) depends on the
occurrence of a truly chance subatomic event (such as
the disintegration of a single radioactive nucleus). In
such a contrived situation, one may accurately speak of
an event determined by chance, in the sense of a random
occurrence completely unpredictable, at least as to
time.
[PJC]
Any society into which chance might throw him.
--Macaulay.
That power
Which erring men call Chance. --Milton.
2. The operation or activity of such agent.
By chance a priest came down that way. --Luke x. 31.
3. The supposed effect of such an agent; something that
befalls, as the result of unknown or unconsidered forces;
the issue of uncertain conditions; an event not calculated
upon; an unexpected occurrence; a happening; accident;
fortuity; casualty.
In the field of observation, chance favors only the
mind that is prepared. --Louis
Pasteur.
[PJC]
Note: This quotation is usually found in the form "Chance
favors the prepared mind." It is a common rejoinder to
the assertion that a scientist was "lucky" to have made
some particular discovery because of unanticipated
factors. A related quotation, from the
Nobel-Prize-winning chemist R. B. Woodward, is that "A
scientist has to work wery hard to get to the point
where he can be lucky."
[PJC]
It was a chance that happened to us. --1 Sam. vi.
9.
The Knave of Diamonds tries his wily arts,
And wins (O shameful chance!) the Queen of
Hearts. --Pope.
I spake of most disastrous chance. --Shak.
4. A possibility; a likelihood; an opportunity; -- with
reference to a doubtful result; as, a chance to escape; a
chance for life; the chances are all against him.
So weary with disasters, tugged with fortune.
That I would get my life on any chance,
To mend it, or be rid on 't --Shak.
5. (Math.) Probability.
Note: The mathematical expression, of a chance is the ratio
of frequency with which an event happens in the long
run. If an event may happen in a ways and may fail in b
ways, and each of these a + b ways is equally likely,
the chance, or probability, that the event will happen
is measured by the fraction a/a + b, and the chance, or
probability, that it will fail is measured by b/a + b.
{Chance comer}, one who comes unexpectedly.
{The last chance}, the sole remaining ground of hope.
{The main chance}, the chief opportunity; that upon which
reliance is had, esp. self-interest.
{Theory of chances}, {Doctrine of chances} (Math.), that
branch of mathematics which treats of the probability of
the occurrence of particular events, as the fall of dice
in given positions.
{To mind one's chances}, to take advantage of every
circumstance; to seize every opportunity.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Chance \Chance\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Chanced}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Chancing}.]
To happen, come, or arrive, without design or expectation.
''Things that chance daily.'' --Robynson (More's Utopia).
If a bird's nest chance to be before thee. --Deut.
xxii. 6.
I chanced on this letter. --Shak.
Note: Often used impersonally; as, how chances it?
How chance, thou art returned so soon? --Shak.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Chance \Chance\, verb (used with an object)
1. To take the chances of; to venture upon; -- usually with
it as object.
Come what will, I will chance it. --W. D.
Howells.
2. To befall; to happen to. [Obs.] --W. Lambarde.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
302 Moby Thesaurus words for "chance":
a leg up, accidental, accidentally, advantage, adventitious,
adventure, aleatoric, aleatory, amorphous, appear, approach,
aptitude, aptness, arise, assay, attempt, bare possibility,
bechance, befall, bet, betide, blind bargain, blobby, blurred,
blurry, borderline case, bout, brave, break, broad, bump,
by chance, calculated risk, capriciousness, careless, casual,
causeless, certainty, chance it, chances, chanciness, chancy,
changeableness, chaotic, clear stage, come, come about, come along,
come forth, come into being, come into existence, come on,
come to pass, conceivability, conceivableness, conceivably,
confused, contingency, contingent, court destruction, crop up,
dare, defy danger, destinal, dicey, disordered, double contingency,
draw on, endanger, engage, erraticism, erraticness, essay,
even chance, eventuality, expectation, face up to,
fair expectation, fair field, fair game, fall out, fatal, fate,
fatidic, favorable prospect, fickleness, flier, fluke, fluky,
foggy, forget the odds, fortuitous, fortuity, fortune, fuzzy,
gamble, gamble on, general, go, good chance, good possibility,
guess, hap, happen, happen along, happen by chance, hazard, hazy,
heedless, hesitancy, hesitation, hit, hit-or-miss, hope, iffy,
ill-defined, imperil, imprecise, inaccurate, inadvertent,
inadvertently, incalculability, incertitude, inchoate, incidental,
incoherent, indecision, indecisive, indecisiveness, indefinable,
indefinite, indemonstrability, indeterminable, indeterminacy,
indeterminate, indetermination, indeterminism, indistinct, inexact,
inning, innings, irresolution, jeopardize, lax, liability,
liableness, liberty, lift a finger, light, likelihood, likeliness,
look-in, loose, lot, luck, make an attempt, make an effort,
materialize, maybe, meet, nonspecific, obligation, obscure,
occasion, occur, odd, odds, off chance, offer, open question,
opening, opportunism, opportunity, orderless, outlook,
outside chance, outside hope, perhaps, piece of guesswork, place,
play, play with fire, plunge, pop up, possibility, possibleness,
possibly, potential, potentiality, predictability, present itself,
presumption, presumptive evidence, probabilism, probability,
proneness, prospect, question, random, randomness,
reasonable ground, reasonable hope, relief, rely on fortune,
remote possibility, risk, risky, room, round, run a chance,
run the chance, run the risk, say, scope, set at hazard,
shadowed forth, shadowy, shapeless, shot, show, show up,
sight-unseen transaction, small hope, speculation, spell,
spring up, squeak, stake, stepping-stone, stochastic, stumble,
suspense, suspensefulness, sweeping, take a chance, take a flier,
take chances, take place, tempt Providence, tempt fortune,
tendency, the attainable, the feasible, the possible, thinkability,
thinkableness, time, time at bat, toss-up, touch and go, transpire,
trust to chance, try, try the chance, tumble, turn, turn up,
unaccountability, uncaused, uncertainness, uncertainty,
uncertainty principle, unclear, undecided issue, undecidedness,
undefined, undertake, undestined, undetermined, undeterminedness,
unexpected, unforeseeable, unforeseeableness, unforeseen,
unintentional, unintentionally, unlooked-for, unplain, unplanned,
unpredictability, unpredictable, unpremeditated, unprovability,
unspecified, unsureness, unverifiability, vacillation, vague,
veiled, venture, venture on, venture upon, verisimilitude,
virtuality, wager, weakness, well-grounded hope, whack,
what is possible, what may be, what might be, whimsicality
From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:
Chance, MD
Zip code(s): 21816
Chance, VA
Zip code(s): 22439
From U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000) [gaz-place]:
Chance, MD -- U.S. Census Designated Place in Maryland
Population (2000): 377
Housing Units (2000): 254
Land area (2000): 1.728426 sq. miles (4.476603 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.839181 sq. miles (2.173468 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 2.567607 sq. miles (6.650071 sq. km)
FIPS code: 15075
Located within: Maryland (MD), FIPS 24
Location: 38.176818 N, 75.939272 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 21816
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Chance, MD
Chance
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Chance
(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).
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