Roget's Thesaurus

#621. Chance

Nouns

chance etc. 156; lot, fate etc. (necessity) 601; luck; good luck etc. (good) 618; mascot. speculation, venture, stake, game of chance; mere shot, random shot; blind bargain, leap in the dark; pig in a poke etc. (uncertainty) 475; fluke, potluck; faro bank; flyer [Slang]; limit. uncertainty; uncertainty principle, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. drawing lots; sortilegy, sortition; sortes, sortes Virgilianae; rouge et noir [Fr.], hazard, ante, chuck-a-luck, crack-loo [U.S.], craps, faro, roulette, pitch and toss, chuck, farthing, cup tossing, heads or tails, cross and pile, poker-dice; wager; bet, betting; gambling; the turf. gaming house, gambling house, betting house; bucket shop; gambling joint; totalizator, totalizer; hell; betting ring; dice, dice box. [person who takes chances] gambler, gamester; man of the turf; adventurer; dicer.

Verbs

chance etc. (hap) 156; stand a chance etc. (be possible) 470. toss up; cast lots, draw lots; leave to chance, trust to chance, leave to the chapter of accidents, trust to the chapter of accidents; tempt fortune; chance it, take one's chance, take a shot at it (attempt) 675; run the risk, run the chance, incur the risk, incur the chance, encounter the risk, encounter the chance; stand the hazard of the die. speculate, try one's luck, set on a cast, raffle, put into a lottery, buy a pig in a poke, shuffle the cards. risk, venture, hazard, stake; ante; lay, lay a wager; make a bet, wager, bet, gamble, game, play for; play at chuck farthing.

Adjectives

fortuitous etc. 156; unintentional, unintended; accidental; not meant; undesigned, purposed; unpremeditated etc. 612; unforeseen, uncontemplated, never thought of. random, indiscriminate, promiscuous; undirected; aimless, driftless, designless, purposeless, causeless; without purpose. possible etc. 470. unforeseeable, unpredictable, chancy, risky, speculative, dicey.

Adverbs

randomly, by chance, fortuitously; unpredictably, unforeseeably; casually etc. 156; unintentionally etc. adj.; unwittingly. en passant [Fr.], by the way, incidentally; as it may happen; at random, at a venture, at haphazard.

Phrases

acierta errando [Lat.]; dextro tempore [Lat.]; fearful concatenation of circumstances [D. Webster]; fortuitous combination of circumstances [Dickens]; le jeu est le fils d'avarice et le pere du desespoir [Fr.]; the happy combination of fortuitous circumstances [Scott]; the fortuitous or casual concourse of atoms [Bentley]; God does not play dice with the universe [A. Einstein].