serendipity
Serendipity is a welcome find that arrives unplanned during a search aimed at something else, together with the knack for noticing it.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Definitions
- The fact of finding something valuable or welcome by chance, while looking for something else.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - The faculty of making such happy discoveries by accident.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Examples
- Finding that paper was pure serendipity: I was looking for something else entirely.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - Several drug discoveries owe as much to serendipity as to planning.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Usage
The word is uncountable in its main sense, so it takes no article and no plural: one says that a meeting happened by serendipity, not a serendipity. It belongs to a fairly formal register and shows up most often in writing about research, medicine, technology and careers, where it explains a good outcome that nobody planned. In casual speech the same idea usually comes out as luck or a lucky break.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)The usual mistake is to use serendipity for any good luck, including luck with no search behind it. Winning a prize in a raffle is luck, not serendipity, because nothing was being looked for. The second mistake is to stretch the word to cover a plain coincidence, where two events lined up but nothing valuable was found. Serendipity needs a search, a surprise and a find worth having, and dropping any one of the three leaves a different word doing the work.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)A nearby word worth separating is coincidence, which names two events lining up without implying that either was searched for or that the result was useful. Serendipity always carries both: an active search and a valuable find. The adjective serendipitous is common in the same contexts, and the adverb serendipitously belongs to written prose rather than to conversation.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Word forms
Regular forms according to English morphology (editorial description).
word forms
| przypadek | forma |
|---|---|
| singular | serendipity |
| plural | serendipities |
Word forms: Editorial team
Collocations
- pure serendipity
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - a moment of serendipity
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address) - by serendipity
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Synonyms · Antonyms
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Etymology
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H. Walpole, letter to Horace Mann, 28 January 1754, The Letters of Horace Walpole, vol. 2, open sourceRelated words
- serendipitous , adjective
Related entries
Questions and answers
What does serendipity mean?
Serendipity is a valuable find made by accident during a search for something else. It also names the talent for making such finds, as in a researcher with a gift for serendipity. It is narrower than luck, because it always involves both a search and a worthwhile result.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Is serendipity countable?
In its main sense it is uncountable: by serendipity, pure serendipity, a moment of serendipity. The plural serendipities exists and is used for individual lucky discoveries, mostly in formal writing. In everyday speech the singular without an article is the safer choice, and it covers almost every context.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)What is the difference between serendipity and luck?
Luck is a good outcome with no search behind it, while serendipity requires someone to be looking for something when the valuable find happens. A raffle win is luck. A scientist who notices an unexpected effect while testing something else has met serendipity. The distinction matters because serendipity is often used to describe how research actually proceeds.
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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)Where does the word serendipity come from?
Horace Walpole invented the word in 1754, drawing on the story of the three princes of Serendip. He used it for discoveries made by accident while the discoverer was looking for something else. The term stayed uncommon until the twentieth century.