odds
UK/ɒdz//ɑdz/
odds noun: the ratio of the probability of an event happening to that of it not happening. Also the plural of odd.
Noun (1)
odds pl (plural only)
- The ratio of the probability of an event happening to that of it not happening.
- I'd say the odds are strongly in favor of the sun rising tomorrow morning.
- A thouſand Perſean horſemen are at hand,
Sent from the King to ouercome vs all. […]
A thouſand horſmen? We fiue hundred foote?
An ods too great, for vs to ſtand againſt: […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- Synonyms:
- chance
- The ratio of winnings to stake in betting situations.
- I looked at the odds given by all bookmakers.
- An advantage given to a weaker opponent in order to equalize the game when playing casually, usually by removing one of the stronger player's pieces or by giving the weaker player more time.
- She beat me with knight odds but lost with rook odds.
- The grandmaster gave his opponents significant time odds, of one minute versus ten minutes.
Noun (2) capitalized: ODDs
ODDs
- plural of ODD
Also used as
odds is also the plural of odd.
odds meaning in Bengali, Tagalog, Indonesian and Vietnamese
odds in Bengali
- প্রতিকূলতা
odds in Tagalog
- the ratio of the probabilities of an event happening to that of it not happening
- kahigtan
odds in Indonesian
- the ratio of the probabilities of an event happening to that of it not happening
- kemungkinan
odds in Vietnamese
- the ratio of the probabilities of an event happening to that of it not happening
- khả năng
Examples of odds in a sentence
- Temperatures at that time stayed very low, and the search manager at the scene believed that the odds of finding Ryan alive in those conditions were poor.2026 August 18, Nicholas Muhoro, “Ryan Shtuka, 20, Vanished After Leaving a House Party at a Ski Resort in 2018. His Walk Home Was Only 300...
- Maurian, who had scored all the Knight-odds parties and the majority of the even-term ones!1913, The British Chess Magazine, volume 33, Trubner & Company, page 51:
- In armageddon, black gets "time odds": White gets five minutes while black gets just four, but a draw counts as a win for black.2016 November 27, Oliver Roeder, “The World Chess Championship Comes Down To The Final Game”, in FiveThirtyEight, archived from the...
- Here, Nakamura took the white pieces and the time odds with the mandatory win requirement, and managed to break Nepomniachtchi's resistance to clinch the title.2022 October 31, Luci Kelemen, “Nakamura wins 2022 Fischer Random Chess Championship, Carlsen slides to top-four finish”, in Dot Esports...
Synonyms of odds
Origin of odds
From odd (“uneven, strange”).
Words formed from odds
- against all odds
- at all odds
- at odds
- beat the odds
- by all odds
- even odds
- fixed odds
- implied odds
- lay odds
- long odds
- make no odds
- may the odds be ever in your favor
- odds against
- odds and bods
- odds and ends
- odds and sods
- odds are
- oddsboard
- odds bud
- odds it
- oddsmaker
- oddsmaking
- oddsman
- odds match
- odds on
- odds-on
- oddswise
- over the odds
- play the odds
- pot odds
- reverse implied odds
- short odds
- shout the odds
- take odds
- what are the odds
Phrases with odds
- odds me
- laid odds
- lays odds
- laying odds
- made no odds
- makes no odds
- beats the odds
- making no odds
- plays the odds
- beaten the odds
- played the odds
- shouts the odds
5 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with odds
Questions about odds
- What does odds mean?
- Odds means the ratio of the probability of an event happening to that of it not happening.
- What is odds in Bengali?
- Odds in Bengali is প্রতিকূলতা. See Odds meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use odds in a sentence?
- Temperatures at that time stayed very low, and the search manager at the scene believed that the odds of finding Ryan alive in those conditions were poor.
- What part of speech is odds?
- Odds is a noun.
- How do you pronounce odds?
- Odds is pronounced /ɑdz/ (US).
Words near odds in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: odds (page history and authors); ODDs (page history and authors); odds (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-odds.wav.
Cite this entry: “odds.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/odds. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.