serendipity: The occurrence of happy or beneficial events by chance.

serendipity

sair-uhn-DIP-ih-tee, noun

The occurrence of happy or beneficial events by chance.

“It was pure serendipity that the two founders shared a delayed flight.”

Where serendipity comes from

Horace Walpole coined it in 1754, after a fairy tale set in old Sri Lanka.

Difficulty: intermediate. One of 440 entries written and checked by hand.

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Nearby: sempiternal sesquipedalian All 440 words More word origins

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