perhaps

Pluralperhapses

1. 1
   maybeadverb

   Used to indicate that something is possible but not certain.

   Perhaps the meeting will be moved to next week.

   The delay was caused, perhaps, by a shortage of parts.

   UsageA little more formal than maybe. It can open a sentence (Perhaps we can go), sit before the verb, or follow a comma.

   Similarmaybe, possibly, conceivably

   Oppositedefinitely, certainly, surely

   Note

   An adverb that can sit almost anywhere in a sentence. It can stand at the front (Perhaps John will come over for dinner) or slip between subject and verb, as in the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897): they "perhaps had this result." It can trail after a comma as an afterthought (wounded, perhaps fatally) or even hedge a single adjective inside a noun phrase (a perhaps credible witness).

2. 2
   uncertaintynouncountable

   A matter that remains uncertain or undecided.

   He answered with a vague perhaps that settled nothing.

   Their proposal was a string of perhapses with no firm commitments.

   UsageThe plural is perhapses. Often a mere perhaps or only a perhaps, for an answer that settles nothing.

   Similarmaybe, possibility, uncertainty

   Oppositecertainty

   Note

   It suits writing that puts doubt itself on trial. The Missionary Herald of 1870 dismisses skepticism's "endless and contradictory perhapses, and perhapses, and perhapses." There the plural, repeated, does the scorning. It can name one vague hedge, as in a mere perhaps, but it bites hardest when the hedges pile up.

3. 3
   adverbdated

   As chance may have it, or as things happen to turn out; by any chance.

   Note

   The meaning closest to how the word was built: Middle English perhap, from per plus hap, "chance," modeled on parchaunce, today's perchance. It speaks of luck rather than likelihood. Older writers used it where we would now say by chance. Now dated, it lingers in conditions such as if perhaps you see her, where it means "by any chance" and shades into the everyday "possibly" meaning. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Middle English perhap was formed from per and hap. en.wiktionary.org
   • Hap meant chance or luck. en.wiktionary.org
   • The formation was modeled on Middle English parchaunce. en.wiktionary.org
   • Middle English parchaunce became modern perchance. en.wiktionary.org
   • Perhaps historically had the meaning 'by chance'. en.wiktionary.org

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