HAPPENSTANCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does happenstance mean? 

• HAPPENSTANCE (noun)
  The noun HAPPENSTANCE has 1 sense:

1. an event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental

  Familiarity information: HAPPENSTANCE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HAPPENSTANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

coincidence; happenstance

Hypernyms ("happenstance" is a kind of...):

accident; chance event; fortuity; stroke (anything that happens suddenly or by chance without an apparent cause)

 Context examples 

There is a more dazzling happenstance here.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Researchers have now determined that the expected increase in sea level rise due to climate change was likely hidden because of a happenstance of timing: Pinatubo erupted in 1991, two years before the first satellite observations of the ocean began.

(Volcanic eruption masked acceleration in sea level rise, NSF)