different between course vs chance

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kôs, IPA^(key): /k??s/
• (General American) enPR: kôrs, IPA^(key): /k???s/, /k??s/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: k?rs, IPA^(key): /ko(?)?s/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ko?s/
• (Tasmania) IPA^(key): /k??s/
• Homophone: coarse; curse (Tasmania)
• Rhymes: -??(?)s, -??(?)s (Tasmania)

Etymology 1

From Middle English cours, from Old French cours, from Latin cursus (“course of a race”), from curr? (“run”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *?ers- (“to run”). Doublet of cursus.

Noun

course (plural courses)

1. A sequence of events.
   1. A normal or customary sequence.
   2. A programme, a chosen manner of proceeding.
   3. Any ordered process or sequence of steps.
   4. A learning programme, whether a single class or (Britain) a major area of study.
      • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond

        During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant […]

      • 1992 August 21, Edwina Currie, Diary:

        Her course will be ‘Communication Studies with Theatre Studies’: God, how tedious, how pointless.
   5. (especially in medicine) A treatment plan.
      • 1932, Agatha Christie, The Thirteen Problems

        Miss Clark, alarmed at her increasing stoutness, was doing a course of what is popularly known as banting.

   6. A stage of a meal.

   7. The succession of one to another in office or duty; order; turn.

      • He appointed […] the courses of the priests.

2. A path that something or someone moves along.
   1. The itinerary of a race.

   2. A racecourse.
   3. The path taken by a flow of water; a watercourse.
   4. (sports) The trajectory of a ball, frisbee etc.
   5. (golf) A golf course.
   6. (nautical) The direction of movement of a vessel at any given moment.

   7. (navigation) The intended passage of voyage, such as a boat, ship, airplane, spaceship, etc.

3. (nautical) The lowest square sail in a fully rigged mast, often named according to the mast.

4. (in the plural, courses, obsolete, euphemistic) Menses.
5. A row or file of objects.
   1. (masonry) A row of bricks or blocks.

   2. (roofing) A row of material that forms the roofing, waterproofing or flashing system.
   3. (textiles) In weft knitting, a single row of loops connecting the loops of the preceding and following rows.
6. (music) One or more strings on some musical instruments (such as the guitar, lute or vihuela): if multiple, then closely spaced, tuned in unison or octaves and intended to played together.

Hyponyms

• bird course
• crash course
• due course
• massive open online course (MOOC)

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

course (third-person singular simple present courses, present participle coursing, simple past and past participle coursed)

1. To run or flow (especially of liquids and more particularly blood).

   The oil coursed through the engine.

   Blood pumped around the human body courses throughout all its veins and arteries.

   • 2013, Martina Hyde, "Is the pope Catholic?", The Guardian, 20 September 2013[1]

     He is a South American, so perhaps revolutionary spirit courses through Francis's veins. But what, pray, does the Catholic church want with doubt?

2. (transitive) To run through or over.
3. (transitive) To pursue by tracking or estimating the course taken by one's prey; to follow or chase after.
4. (transitive) To cause to chase after or pursue game.

   to course greyhounds after deer

Translations

Etymology 2

Clipping of of course

Adverb

course (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Alternative form of of course

Anagrams

• Couser, Crouse, Crusoe, cerous, coures, crouse, source

French

Etymology

From Old French cours, from Latin cursus (“course of a race”), from curr? (“run”), with influence of Italian corsa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku?s/

Noun

course f (plural courses)

1. run, running
2. race
3. errand

Usage notes

• course is a false friend, it does not mean "course". To translate the English word course to French, use cours.

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Romanian: curs?

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• coeurs, cœurs
• coures
• écrous
• source

Norman

Etymology

From Old French cours, from Latin cursus (“course of a race”), from curr? (“run”).

Noun

course f (plural courses)

1. (Jersey) course

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