Word.ws English Dictionary

as likely as not

as likely as not adverb: as has even chances of being true or happening; as has a fifty-fifty likelihood; (often loosely) probably.

Adverb

as likely as not (not comparable)

  1. As has even chances of being true or happening; as has a fifty-fifty likelihood; (often loosely) probably.
    • Near-synonyms: (broadly synonymous) more than likely, in all likelihood, in all probability
    • "You're tying my hands," complained Tommy. "It's a very delicate affair, and the other fellow will muff it up as likely as not, and then where shall I be? I don't believe one of you has got an ounce of tact."1922, Agatha Christie, “Chapter 16”, in The Secret Adversary

Synonyms of as likely as not

Questions about as likely as not

What does as likely as not mean?
As likely as not means as has even chances of being true or happening; as has a fifty-fifty likelihood; (often loosely) probably.
What part of speech is as likely as not?
As likely as not is an adverb.

Words near as likely as not in the dictionary

  1. as it were
  2. as large as life
  3. AS Level
  4. AS Levels
  5. as like as not
  6. as likely as not
  7. as long as
  8. as luck may have it
  9. as luck would have it
  10. as mad as a cut snake
  11. as memory serves

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: as likely as not (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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