serendipity

serendipity — noun

1. the way that fortunate or interesting events happen or are discovered completely

1.nounB2
Definition

the way that fortunate or interesting events happen or are discovered completely by accident, without being planned or actively looked for

Example

Ryo discovered his love for painting through pure serendipity during a rainy afternoon.

through + [noun phrase] serendipity for accidental discovery

The research team credited serendipity for the unexpected breakthrough in their experiment.

credit serendipity for [result]

Common collocations
  • by serendipity
  • through serendipity
  • a stroke of serendipity
  • pure / sheer serendipity
  • a moment of serendipity
  • credit serendipity for
Synonyms
  • luck

    broader term — luck covers any good fortune, not specifically accidental discovery

  • chance

    more neutral — chance can refer to random events regardless of whether the outcome is good or bad

  • happenstance

    more literary and less common; emphasises that events occurred together by accident

Antonyms
  • design

    the opposite of happening by accident — a result of deliberate planning

  • misfortune

    bad luck or an unlucky outcome

Grammar Patterns

serendipity + verb

a stroke / moment / act of serendipity

Usage Note

Uncountable noun — do not use directly with 'a' (use 'a stroke of serendipity' or 'a moment of serendipity'). The word is most common in narrative or reflective writing rather than casual everyday speech.

Common Mistakes

I had a serendipity yesterday.
I had a stroke of serendipity yesterday.
serendipity is uncountable and needs a partitive phrase.
The meeting was serendipity.
The meeting happened through serendipity.
serendipity names a concept or quality, not an event itself.

Word family

  • serendipitous
    adjectiveC1
  • serendipitously
    adverbC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Serendipity, luck, chance, and happenstance all describe events outside human control, but they differ in scope and connotation. Luck is the broadest term — it can refer to any good or bad fortune, from winning a lottery to surviving a storm. Chance is more neutral and often describes random probability ('the outcome depends on chance'). Happenstance overlaps closely with serendipity but lacks the strong positive connotation — happenstance is simply things happening to coincide, whether fortunate or not. Serendipity is the only one that specifically implies finding something valuable or enjoyable that you were not looking for. For example, you might say 'Running into an old friend at the airport was a happy chance,' but if that friend later offers you a life-changing job, you would call it serendipity.

serendipity ↗luck ↗chance ↗happenstance

Common collocations

Nouns

  • a stroke of serendipity
  • a moment of serendipity
  • an act of serendipity
  • an element of serendipity

Phrases

  • pure serendipity
  • sheer serendipity
  • credit serendipity for

Prepositions

  • by serendipity
  • through serendipity

Etymology

PersianEnglish

The English writer Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity in 1754. He based it on a Persian fairy tale called 'The Three Princes of Serendip' (Serendip being an old name for Sri Lanka). In the story, the princes were constantly making fortunate discoveries purely by accident — finding things they were not looking for. Walpole created the word to describe exactly that kind of accidental good fortune.