#621. [Absence of purpose in the succession of events] Chance. 2 -- N. chance &c. 156; lot, fate &c. (necessity) 601; luck; good luck &c. (good) 618; mascot.
speculation, venture, stake, game of chance; mere shot, random shot; blind bargain, leap in the dark; pig in a poke &c. (uncertainty) 475; fluke, potluck; faro bank; flyer*; limit.
uncertainty; uncertainty principle, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
drawing lots; sortilegy[obs], sortition|; sortes[obs], sortes Virgilianae[obs]; rouge et noir[Fr], hazard, ante, chuck-a-luck, crack-loo [obs][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|!.
V. chance &c. (hap) 156; stand a chance &c. (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.
Adj. fortuitous &c. 156; unintentional, unintended; accidental; not meant; undesigned, purposed; unpremeditated &c. 612; unforeseen, uncontemplated, never thought of.
random, indiscriminate, promiscuous; undirected; aimless, driftless[obs], designless[obs], purposeless, causeless; without purpose.
possible &c. 470.
unforeseeable, unpredictable, chancy, risky, speculative, dicey.
Adv. randomly, by chance, fortuitously; unpredictably, unforeseeably; casually &c. 156; unintentionally &c. adj.; unwittingly.
en passant[Fr], by the way, incidentally; as it may happen; at random, at a venture, at haphazard.
Phr. 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].