serendipity
/ˌsɛɹ.ənˈdɪp.ɪ.ti/noun
serendipity is spelled S-E-R-E-N-D-I-P-I-T-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is sernedipity: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 1,000 of all searches for the word. Serendipity is a noun meaning “The phenomenon of making an unplanned, fortunate discovery through a combination of unexpected circumstances…”. The plural of serendipity is serendipities.
How many letters and syllables are in serendipity?
| Letters | 11: S-E-R-E-N-D-I-P-I-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 39,832nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, sernedipity, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell serendipity?
Serendipity is spelled S-E-R-E-N-D-I-P-I-T-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 987 of the searches for serendipity in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is serendipity?
Serendipity appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,832nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce serendipity?
- UK /ˌsɛɹ.ənˈdɪp.ɪ.ti/
- UK /ˌsɛɹ.ɛnˈdɪp.ɪ.ti/
- US /ˌsɛɹ.ənˈdɪp.ɪ.ti/
Serendipity has 5 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-serendipity.ogg, En-us-serendipity.ogg, En-au-serendipity.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of serendipity
- serendipities plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does serendipity mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The phenomenon of making an unplanned, fortunate discovery through a combination of unexpected circumstances and insightful recognition.
The most random serendipity brought the two of us together, and now, we are happily married! If I was just 15 seconds slower, I'd have never met her! This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive
- 2
An unsought, unintended or unexpected, but fortunate, discovery or learning experience that occurs by accident.
- 3
The occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Serendipity in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sérendipité, aubaine, heureux hasard, chance, coup de pot |
| German | (glücklicher) Zufallsfund, zufällige Entdeckung, Serendipität , glückliche Fügung, wunderbares Geschehen, unverhofftes Glück |
| Portuguese | serendipidade, serendipitia, serendipismo, eventualidade, contingência, acaso |
| Spanish | serendipia, serendipidad |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.