Coincidence

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kəʊˈɪnsɪdəns/

Definitions

1. A remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances that happen to occur at the same time without any apparent causal connection
2. An unexpected occurrence where two or more events align simultaneously without a clear causal relationship exists
3. An event or situation where two or more unrelated things happen at the same moment purely by chance

Etymology: The idea behind "coincidence" began with geometry. Medieval Latin "coincidentia" was built from "co-", meaning "together," and "incidere," "to fall upon," so the word originally described things falling on or into the same place. Mathematicians used the term for figures that exactly overlap, and only later did it come to describe events that happen to fall together in time. The word reached English through Middle French "coincidence," which carried the same sense of two things meeting or matching. English speakers borrowed it with its literal, spatial meaning intact, and the sense of chance timing developed from that image of two things landing on the same spot. Its parts are the verb "coincide," from the same Latin roots, plus the noun-forming suffix "-ence."

Synonyms: happening, co-occurrence, chance

Antonyms: coincidental, discrepancy