Word.ws English Dictionary

on the off chance

on the off chance adverb: hoping that (something is the case), even if it is unlikely.

Adverb

on the off chance

  1. Hoping that (something is the case), even if it is unlikely.

Forms of on the off chance

alternative formon the off-chance

Origin of on the off chance

From off chance.

Questions about on the off chance

What does on the off chance mean?
On the off chance means hoping that (something is the case), even if it is unlikely.
What part of speech is on the off chance?
On the off chance is an adverb.

Words near on the off chance in the dictionary

  1. on the needle
  2. on the nick
  3. on the nod
  4. on the nose
  5. on the nut
  6. on the off chance
  7. on the one hand
  8. on the order of
  9. on the other bus
  10. on the other hand
  11. on the other paw

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the off chance (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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Cite this entry: “on the off chance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_off_chance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.