coincidence

See also: coïncidence

English

Alternative forms

• coïncidence (uncommon)
• coincidency (dated)
• quincidence (pronunciation spelling)

Etymology

From French coïncidence.

Morphologically coincide +‎ -ence.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəʊˈɪnsɪdəns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /koʊˈɪnsɪdəns/, /kəˈwɪnsɪdəns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

coincidence (countable and uncountable, plural coincidences)

1. Of objects, the property of being coincident; occurring at the same time or place.
2. Of events, the appearance of a meaningful connection when there is none.

   That the two writers were born and died on the same day is just a coincidence, although there are many conspiracy theories about it.

   It is sheer coincidence that the cartoon resembles the local politician.

3. (mathematical analysis) A coincidence point.
4. (geometry) A fixed point of a correspondence; a point of a variety corresponding to itself under a correspondence.

Synonyms

• (of objects and time): concurrentness, synchronicity; see also Thesaurus:simultaneousness
• (in analysis): coincidence point

Derived terms

• anthropic coincidence
• cohencidence
• cohencidental
• coincidence method
• coincidence point
• coincidence technique
• coincidence theorist
• coincidence theory
• coinkydink
• index of coincidence
• Lefschetz coincidence theorem

 

Related terms

• coincide
• coincident
• coincidental
• coincidentally

 

Translations

of objects, property of being coincident

• Bulgarian: съвпаде́ние (bg) n (sǎvpadénie)
• Czech: koincidence (cs) f
• French: coïncidence (fr) f
• Hungarian: egybeesés (hu)
• Malay: keadaan serentak (ms)​
• Maori: oruatanga
• Russian: совпаде́ние (ru) n (sovpadénije)
• Spanish: coincidencia (es) f, casualidad (es) f
• Ukrainian: збіг m (zbih)

state of events appearing to be connected when they are not

• Arabic: صُدْفَة (ar) f (ṣudfa), مُصَادَفَة f (muṣādafa), تَصَادُف m (taṣāduf)

  Hijazi Arabic: صُدْفة f (ṣudfa)

• Armenian: պատահականություն (hy) (patahakanutʿyun)
• Azerbaijani: təsadüf (az)
• Belarusian: збе́жнасць f (zbjéžnascʹ), супадзе́нне n (supadzjénnje)
• Bulgarian: съвпаде́ние (bg) n (sǎvpadénie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 巧合 (zh) (qiǎohé)

• Czech: náhoda (cs) f, koincidence (cs) f
• Danish: sammenfald n, sammentræf n
• Dutch: toeval (nl) n
• Esperanto: koincido
• Finnish: yhteensattuma (fi)
• French: coïncidence (fr) f
• German: zufälliges Zusammentreffen m, Koinzidenz (de) f, Zufall (de) m
• Greek: σύμπτωση (el) f (sýmptosi)

  Ancient Greek: σύμπτωσις f (súmptōsis)

• Hawaiian: ūlialia
• Hebrew: צירוף-מקרים m (tzerúf-mikrím)
• Hindi: संयोग (hi) m (sañyog), इत्तिफ़ाक़ m (ittifāq)
• Hungarian: véletlen egybeesés
• Italian: coincidenza (it) f
• Japanese: 一致 (ja) (いっち, itchi), 偶然 (ja) (ぐうぜん, gūzen), 符合 (ja) (ふごう, fugō), 偶然の一致 (ぐうぜんのいっち, gūzen no itchi)
• Korean: 일치(一致) (ko) (ilchi), 우연의 일치 (uyeonui ilchi), 우연(偶然) (ko) (uyeon)
• Lithuanian: sutapimas m
• Macedonian: совпаѓање n (sovpaǵanje), случајност f (slučajnost)
• Malay: kebetulan (ms)
• Maori: oruatanga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sammentreff n, sammenfall n, tilfeldighet (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: samantreff m or n, samanfall

• Persian: تصادف (fa) (tasâdof)
• Polish: zbieg okoliczności (pl) m, koincydencja (pl) f, przypadek (pl) m, traf (pl) m
• Portuguese: coincidência (pt) f
• Romanian: coincidență (ro) f
• Russian: совпаде́ние (ru) n (sovpadénije)
• Scottish Gaelic: co-thuiteamas m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: случајност f, коинциденција f

  Roman: slučajnost (sh) f, koincidencija (sh) f

• Slovak: náhoda f
• Slovene: nakljúčje (sl) n
• Spanish: coincidencia (es) f, casualidad (es) f
• Swedish: sammanträffande (sv)
• Tajik: тасодуф (tg) (tasoduf)
• Turkish: tesadüf (tr), rastlantı (tr)
• Ukrainian: збіг m (zbih), збі́жність f (zbížnistʹ)

coincidence point — see coincidence point