perhaps
Syllables: per·haps/pəˈhæps//pɚˈhæps/
perhaps adverb: possibly.
Adverb
perhaps (not comparable)
- Possibly.
- Perhaps John will come over for dinner.
- There was a perhaps credible witness.
- By chance.
- […] will live until he dies perhaps, and then lie down in clover.c. 1850, “Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl”
Noun
perhaps (plural perhapses)
- An uncertainty.
- I cannot conceive what atheism, or skepticism, or positivism could do for me now, with their negations, and endless and contradictory perhapses, and perhapses, and perhapses.1870, The Missionary Herald, volumes 66-67, page 167
perhaps meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
perhaps in Hindi
- indicating a lack of certainty
- कदाचित kadācit, शायद śāyad, कदाचित् kadācit
perhaps in Tamil
- ஒருவேளை
perhaps in Urdu
- indicating a lack of certainty
- شاید śāyad, غالباً ġāliban
perhaps in Bengali
- perhaps, possibly, maybe
- হয়তো hôẏto
- perhaps
- মাগার magar
More languagesFewer languages
- perhaps in Telugu
- ఒకవేళ okavēḷa
- perhaps in Malayalam
- ഒരുപക്ഷേ orupakṣē
- perhaps in Gujarati
- કદાચ kadāc
- perhaps in Odia
- ହିଁ hĩ
- perhaps in Sanskrit
- स्यात् syāt
- perhaps in Nepali
- होला holā
- perhaps in Pashto
- شايد šāyád
- perhaps in Arabic
- رُبَّمَا rubbamā, مِن اَلْمُمْكِن min al-mumkin, لَعَلَّ laʕalla
- perhaps in Malay
- barangkali
- perhaps in Indonesian
- mungkin, barangkali, mungkin saja
- perhaps in Persian
- شاید šâyad, گاس gâs
- perhaps in Thai
- ไม่แน่ mâi-nɛ̂ɛ, บางที baang-tii
- perhaps in Vietnamese
- có lẽ, có thể
Examples of perhaps in a sentence
- He was seriously wounded, perhaps fatally.
- They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
- Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
Synonyms of perhaps
Forms of perhaps
| Adverb | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | perhap |
| Noun | |
| plural | perhapses |
Origin of perhaps
From Middle English perhappes, perhappous, variant of earlier perhap (“perhaps, possibly”), equivalent to per- + hap (“chance, coincidence”) + -s, on model of Middle English parchaunce (modern perchance).
Words formed from perhaps
Words that rhyme with perhaps
Questions about perhaps
- What does perhaps mean?
- Perhaps means possibly.
- What is perhaps in Hindi?
- Perhaps in Hindi is कदाचित (kadācit), शायद (śāyad), कदाचित् (kadācit). See Perhaps meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use perhaps in a sentence?
- He was seriously wounded, perhaps fatally.
- What part of speech is perhaps?
- Perhaps can be an adverb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce perhaps?
- Perhaps is pronounced /pəˈhæps/ (UK).
Words near perhaps in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: perhaps (page history and authors); perhaps (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); মাগার (Bengali) (page history and authors); ఒకవేళ (Telugu) (page history and authors); ହିଁ (Odia) (page history and authors); होला (Nepali) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-perhaps.ogg, en-us-perhaps.ogg.
Cite this entry: “perhaps.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/perhaps. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.