Word.ws English Dictionary

chain of events

chain of events noun: a series of occurrences seen as chronologically linked, and generally in which each occurrence is caused by the previous one and in turn causes the next.

Noun

chain of events (plural chains of events)

  1. A series of occurrences seen as chronologically linked, and generally in which each occurrence is caused by the previous one and in turn causes the next.
    • to set off / spark / start a chain of events
    • A chain of events was set in motion.

Examples of chain of events in a sentence

  • It was the Spirit of the Lord that rescued the Jews from the malice of Haman, by a chain of events, which had no cognation one with another, nor any natural suitableness to such an end:1660, Edward Reynolds, Divine Efficacy Without Humane Power, pages 33-34:
  • He chuses for his Subject a certain Portion of that great Chain of Events, which compose the History of Mankind:1748, David Hume, Philosophical Essays: Concerning Human Understanding, section 3, page 35:
  • Tracing my way back along the chain of events, from one end to the other, I find it necessary to open the scene […]1868, Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, volume 2, page 211:
  • To others the little adventure must seem trivial, but to myself it represented the climax of a chain of events.1916, Hugh Walpole, chapter 7, in The Dark Forest, section 1, page 205:

Forms of chain of events

pluralchains of events

Questions about chain of events

What does chain of events mean?
Chain of events means a series of occurrences seen as chronologically linked, and generally in which each occurrence is caused by the previous one and in turn causes the next.
How do you use chain of events in a sentence?
It was the Spirit of the Lord that rescued the Jews from the malice of Haman, by a chain of events, which had no cognation one with another, nor any natural suitableness to such an end:
What part of speech is chain of events?
Chain of events is a noun.
What is the plural of chain of events?
The plural of chain of events is chains of events.

Words near chain of events in the dictionary

  1. chain migration
  2. chain migrations
  3. Chain of Being
  4. chain of command
  5. chain of custody
  6. chain of events
  7. chain of evidence
  8. Chain of Lagoons
  9. chain of office
  10. chain of thought
  11. chain of title

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chain of events (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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