the absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled: often personified or treated as a positive agency

Chance governs all.

luck or fortune

a game of chance.

a possibility or probability of anything happening

a fifty-percent chance of success.

an opportune or favorable time; opportunity

Now is your chance.

Baseball . an opportunity to field the ball and make a put-out or assist.

a risk or hazard

Take a chance.

a share or ticket in a lottery or prize drawing

The charity is selling chances for a dollar each.

chances, probability

The chances are that the train hasn't left yet.

Midland and Southern U.S. a quantity or number (usually fol. by of ).

Archaic . an unfortunate event; mishap.

to happen or occur by chance

It chanced that our arrivals coincided.

to take the chances or risks of; risk (often fol. by impersonal it )

I'll have to chance it, whatever the outcome.

not planned or expected; accidental

a chance occurrence.

chance on or upon, to come upon by chance; meet unexpectedly

She chanced on a rare kind of mushroom during her walk through the woods.

by chance

without plan or intent; accidentally

I met her again by chance in a department store in Paris.

on the chance

in the mild hope or against the possibility

I'll wait on the chance that she'll come.

on the off chance

in the very slight hope or against the very slight possibility.

verb

chance