Definitions

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

  • noun The state or fact of occupying the same relative position or area in space.
  • noun A sequence of events that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The fact of being coincident, or of occupying the same place in space or the same position in a scale or series; exact correspondence in position: as, the coincidence of equal triangles.
  • noun A happening at the same time or existence during the same period; contemporaneousness.
  • noun Hence Concurrence; agreement in circumstance, character, etc.; more or less exact correspondence generally, or an instance of exact correspondence; especially, accidental or incidental concurrence; accidental agreement: as, the coincidence of two or more opinions.

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

  • noun The condition of occupying the same place in space
  • noun The condition or fact of happening at the same time.
  • noun Exact correspondence in nature, character, result, circumstances, etc.; concurrence; agreement.

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

  • noun Of objects, the property of being coincident; occurring at the same time or place.
  • noun Of events, the appearance of a meaningful connection when there is none.
  • noun analysis A coincidence point.

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

  • noun the quality of occupying the same position or area in space
  • noun an event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental
  • noun the temporal property of two things happening at the same time

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

coincide + -ence

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word coincidence.

Examples

  • The first thing I think when I hear the word coincidence is synchronicity, and then I think, clear as day, that those things happened on the same day because of what the stars said would happen.

    Vivian Rising Daniella Brodsky 2010

  • The word coincidence exists in order to stop people from seeing meaning where none exists.

    Chuck Klosterman on Rock Chuck Klosterman 2010

  • The word coincidence exists in order to stop people from seeing meaning where none exists.

    Oh, the Guilt Chuck Klosterman 2009

  • The word coincidence exists in order to stop people from seeing meaning where none exists.

    Eating the Dinosaur Chuck Klosterman 2009

  • The word coincidence exists in order to stop people from seeing meaning where none exists.

    Oh, the Guilt Chuck Klosterman 2009

  • Also a coincidence is the moving of devolution-friendly Huw Irranca from the Welsh Office to DEFRA.

    Archive 2008-10-01 2008

  • Also a coincidence is the moving of devolution-friendly Huw Irranca from the Welsh Office to DEFRA.

    Hain's letter 2008

  • Not a coincidence is my guess, but no one should confuse causation and correlation.

    Discourse.net: Perspective 2008

  • It really is a fantasy sub-genre all its own, though you don't see it in comics very often... come to think of it, the last comics-type entry in the genre I recall was also called Stardust, though that one was nothing like this one apart from the title coincidence and the bare fact of its our-world-meets-fairytale-world premise.

    Saturday’s Spring Cleaning | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources 2008

  • Belatedly the teacher realized the problem of the name coincidence; she assured the class that there was nothing wrong with playing with dolls, that it teaches both girls and boys how to become parents when they grow up.

    Failing at FAIRNESS Myra David Sadker 2003

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • I really like the examples for this.

    August 10, 2011