coincidence
Pluralcoincidences
- 1When two events seem connected on purpose but really happen by chance.
Like two clocks chiming at the exact same second for no reason at all.
It was just a coincidence that we both wore red that day.
Finding her diary right then felt like more than coincidence.
Similarchance, accident, fluke, happenstance
Oppositedesign
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- 2When two things are in the same spot or happen at the same time.
Like two sheets of paper stacked so their edges line up perfectly.
The coincidence of the two holidays gave everyone a long weekend.
We needed the coincidence of low tide and daylight to cross the river safely.
Similaralignment, conjunction, concurrence, correspondence, simultaneity
Note
- 3A point where two math functions give exactly the same value.
Like the single spot where two roads meet at the same place.
At a coincidence, both functions return exactly the same number.
We searched the graph for a coincidence of the two curves.
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- 4In geometry, a point that matches itself when a rule pairs points together.
Like a game rule that tells one player to pair up with themselves.
The geometers counted every coincidence of the correspondence on the curve.
A correspondence on this surface can have just one coincidence.
Note
Practice
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Origin
From French coïncidence. It can be seen as coincide plus -ence.