Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb Perhaps; perchance.
  • noun Chance or uncertainty; doubt.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Perchance; perhaps; it may be.
  • noun Doubt; question; uncertainty.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb By chance; perhaps; it may be; if; supposing.
  • noun Chance; hap; hence, doubt; question.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb archaic perchance or maybe; perhaps
  • noun chance, doubt or uncertainty

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb by chance
  • noun doubt or uncertainty as to whether something is the case

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English per aventure, from Old French, by chance : per, through (from Latin; see per) + aventure, chance; see adventure.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English peraventure, from Old French par aventure. Spelling modified as though from Latin.

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Examples

Comments

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  • spotted in Kidnapped earlier today.

    December 16, 2008

  • Also in Henry V. :)

    December 16, 2008

  • Changed my mind about this word as the awful Mr Thwaites in Slaves of Solitude uses it.

    January 15, 2009

  • Isn't he a splendid character? Absolutely the quintessence of the Pompous Windbag.

    January 15, 2009

  • It's a great book and he is a funny-sad character.

    January 15, 2009