different between chance vs situation

English

Alternative forms

• chaunce (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?æns/
  • (US, Canada) IPA^(key): [t????ns], [t??e?ns]
  • (Northern England, General Australian, Ireland) IPA^(key): [t??æns], [t??ans]
• IPA^(key): /t???ns/
  • (Received Pronunciation, Cockney) IPA^(key): [t????ns]
  • (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): [t????ns]
• Rhymes: -??ns, -æns

Etymology 1

From Middle English chance, cheance, chaunce, cheaunce, a borrowing from Old French chance (“accident, chance, luck”), from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cadere (“to fall, to die, to happen, occur”). Doublet of cadence and cadenza.

Noun

chance (countable and uncountable, plural chances)

1. (countable) An opportunity or possibility.

2. (uncountable) Random occurrence; luck.

3. (countable) The probability of something happening.

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

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

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.

Translations

Adverb

chance (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Perchance; perhaps.

Etymology 2

From Middle English chancen, chauncen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

chance (third-person singular simple present chances, present participle chancing, simple past and past participle chanced)

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

   • if a bird's nest chance to be before thee

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

     Once […] it chanced that Geoffrey Riddell Bishop of Ely, a Prelate rather troublesome to our Abbot, 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?

   • 1890, William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes

     He does chance it in stocks, but he's always played on the square, if you call stocks gambling.

4. To discover something by chance.

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

Synonyms

• (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

Derived terms

• bechance
• chance on
• chance one's arm
• chance upon

Translations

References

• chance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “chance”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chance, from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cad? (“I fall, I die”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [????s?]

Noun

chance c (singular definite chancen, plural indefinite chancer)

1. A chance

Antonyms

• risiko

French

Etymology

From Old French chance, cheance (“accident, chance, luck”), from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cad?ns, from cad? (“I fall, I die”). Doublet of cadence, borrowed from Italian.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

chance f (plural chances)

1. chance
2. luck

Antonyms

• adversité
• guigne (familiar)
• malchance
• malheur

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Dutch: kans
• ? Dutch: sjans
• ? German: Chance
• ? Persian: ????? (šâns)
• ? Polish: szansa
• ? Romanian: ?ans?
• ? Turkish: ?ans

Related terms

• choir

Further reading

• “chance” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Alternative forms

• scians

Etymology

Borrowed from French chance. Doublet of cadenza.

Noun

chance f (invariable)

1. chance (possibility of a certain outcome)

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“falling”), from Latin cad?ns, from cad? (“I fall, I die”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?an.ts?/

Noun

chance f (oblique plural chances, nominative singular chance, nominative plural chances)

1. chance; fate
2. (rare) a throw of a die

Related terms

• cheoir

Descendants

• ? English: chance
  • Japanese: ???? (chansu) (borrowed)
• French: chance
  • ? Danish: chance
  • ? Italian: chance
  • ? Portuguese: chance
  • ? Romanian: ?ans?
  • ? Spanish: chance
  • ? Turkish: ?ans

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (cheance, supplement)
• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (chance)
• chance on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from French chance. Doublet of cadência.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /????.s?/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /????.si/, [????.s??]

Noun

chance f (plural chances)

1. probability
2. chance, opportunity

   Synonym: oportunidade

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French chance or, in Mexico, from English chance. Doublet of cadencia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /?t??an?e/, [?t??ãn?.?e]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /?t??anse/, [?t??ãn.se]

Noun

chance m or f (plural chances)

1. chance

Conjunction

chance

1. (Mexico) maybe, perchance, perhaps or possibly

   Synonyms: a lo mejor, quizá, quizás, tal vez

English

Alternative forms

• scituation (hyper?correct, obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English situacioun, situacion, from Middle French situation, from Medieval Latin situatio (“position, situation”), from situare (“to locate, place”), from Latin situs (“a site”). Equivalent to situate +? -ion

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?t-yo?o-?'sh?n, s?ch-o?o-?'sh?n, IPA^(key): /s?tju??e???n/, /s?t?u?(w)e???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

situation (plural situations)

1. The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs.
2. The way in which something is positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings.
   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     ...he being naturally an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.

3. The place in which something is situated; a location.
   • 1833, Thomas Hibbert and Robert Buist, The American Flower Garden Directory, page 142:

     [Hibíscus] speciòsus is the most splendid, and deserves a situation in every garden.

4. Position or status with regard to conditions and circumstances.
5. (Britain) A position of employment; a post.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Penguin 2006, page 78:

     When he was nineteen, he suddenly left the 'Co-op' office, and got a situation in Nottingham.

   • 1946, Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler, Choo Choo Ch'Boogie:

     You take a morning paper from the top of the stack

     And read the situations from the front to the back

     The only job that's open need a man with a knack

     So put it right back in the rack Jack.

6. A difficult or unpleasant set of circumstances; a problem.

   Boss, we've got a situation here...

Synonyms

• (combination of circumstances): condition, set up; see also Thesaurus:state

Related terms

• site
• situate
• situated
• situationism

Translations

See also

• situation comedy, sitcom

References

• Source for the definitions:
  • Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. [1] (accessed: March 10, 2007).
• situation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• situation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• situation at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• titanious

French

Etymology

situer +? -ation

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si.t?a.sj??/

Noun

situation f (plural situations)

1. situation (all meanings)

Derived terms

• mise en situation
• situation intéressante

Descendants

• ? Romanian: situa?ie

Further reading

• “situation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Interlingua

Noun

situation (plural situationes)

1. situation, state of affairs

Swedish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?tva??u?n/, /s?t?a??u?n/

Noun

situation c

1. a situation

Declension

Synonyms

• läge

Related terms

• nödsituation
• situationskomik