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COINCIDENCE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The temporal property of two things happening at the same time
Example:
the interval determining the coincidence gate is adjustable
Synonyms:
co-occurrence; coincidence; concurrence; conjunction
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("coincidence" is a kind of...):
simultaneity; simultaneousness (happening or existing or done at the same time)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "coincidence"):
concomitance (occurrence or existence together or in connection with one another)
overlap (the property of partial coincidence in time)
contemporaneity; contemporaneousness (the quality of belonging to the same period of time)
unison (occurring together or simultaneously)
Derivation:
coincide (happen simultaneously)
coincident (occurring or operating at the same time)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The quality of occupying the same position or area in space
Example:
he waited for the coincidence of the target and the cross hairs
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("coincidence" is a kind of...):
position; spatial relation (the spatial property of a place where or way in which something is situated)
Derivation:
coincident (matching point for point)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental
Synonyms:
coincidence; happenstance
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("coincidence" is a kind of...):
accident; chance event; fortuity; stroke (anything that happens suddenly or by chance without an apparent cause)
Context examples:
Surely it might be a coincidence, or this American may have seen a picture of the kind and carried it in his memory.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“It's a curious coincidence,” said I.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The use of coincidence with a pair of gammas giving a coincidence event in detectors 180 degrees apart in a PET scanner to define a line of response along which lies the location of the radiation emitting tracer.
(Electronic Collimation, NCI Thesaurus)
I could not help being struck by the strange coincidences that had taken place during this eventful night; but, knowing that I had been conversing with several persons in the island I had inhabited about the time that the body had been found, I was perfectly tranquil as to the consequences of the affair.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
She gave the history of her recent visit, and now her raptures might well be over; for Edmund was so struck with the circumstance, so delighted with what Miss Crawford had done, so gratified by such a coincidence of conduct between them, that Fanny could not but admit the superior power of one pleasure over his own mind, though it might have its drawback.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Henry's words, his description of the ebony cabinet which was to escape her observation at first, immediately rushed across her; and though there could be nothing really in it, there was something whimsical, it was certainly a very remarkable coincidence!
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
His sisters' uneasiness had been equally excited with my own; our coincidence of feeling was soon discovered, and, alike sensible that no time was to be lost in detaching their brother, we shortly resolved on joining him directly in London.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The Russian consul, too, acting for the charter-party, took formal possession of the ship, and paid all harbour dues, etc. Nothing is talked about here to-day except the strange coincidence; the officials of the Board of Trade have been most exacting in seeing that every compliance has been made with existing regulations.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The odds are enormous against its being coincidence.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Is it a coincidence that it is found at the very point where the train pitches and sways as it comes round on the points?
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
