# chance

> English word · Noun · IPA /t͡ʃæns/ · frequency rank #548

## Definitions
1. An opportunity or possibility.
2. Random occurrence; luck.
3. The probability of something happening.
4. probability; possibility.
5. What befalls or happens to a person; their lot or fate.

## Etymology
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”). Doublet of cadence and cadenza.

## Easily confused with
- **chase** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chase)
- **crane** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-crane)
- **chang** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chang)
- **chant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chant)
- **Chand** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chand)
- **change** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-change)
- **choice** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-choice)
- **charge** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-charge)
- **Chanel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chanel)
- **clancy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-clancy)
- **Chaney** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chaney)
- **chaste** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chaste)
- **Changi** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-changi)
- **changes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-changes)
- **changed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-changed)
- **channel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-channel)
- **chances** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chances)
- **changer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-changer)
- **Chaucer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chaucer)
- **chancel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chance-vs-chancel)

## Common misspellings (10)
`cahnce`, `cchance`, `chacne`, `chancce`, `chanec`, `channce`, `chence`, `chhance`, `chnace`, `hcance`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/chance