serendipity
Americannoun
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serendipities
plural
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an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
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accidental discovery, or an instance of this.
Alton’s premiere novel was a serendipity that affected my thinking in the most positive way.
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good fortune; luck.
What serendipity—she got the first job she applied for!
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of serendipity
Serendip + -ity; coined in 1754 by English novelist Horace Walpole ( def. ) for an ability possessed by the heroes of a fairy tale called The Three Princes of Serendip, using a former name for Sri Lanka
Explanation
If you find good things without looking for them, serendipity — unexpected good luck — has brought them to you. Serendipity does not come from Latin or Greek, but rather was created by a British nobleman in the mid 1700s from an ancient Persian fairy tale. The meaning of the word, good luck in finding valuable things unintentionally, refers to the fairy tale characters who were always making discoveries through chance. You can thank serendipity if you find a pencil at an empty desk just as you walk into an exam and realize that you forgot yours.
Vocabulary lists containing serendipity
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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You Name It: Eponyms
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Some Obscure Eponyms
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Schiller’s reporting methods rely, to some extent, on serendipity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
The U.S. became an energy superpower through serendipity and policy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
Yes, that’s why I like the word serendipity.
From Slate ● Mar. 2, 2026
He added that the whole thing has a "special kind of serendipity" and is "exactly what we wanted to unlock with Welsh National Theatre".
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025
Livingston had discovered electrical focusing by sheer ingenuity and serendipity; Lawrence recognized the underlying principle, which enabled him to incorporate it into subsequent designs.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
When she first came to New York, she was often hungry, surviving on nothing more than pizza slices and Orange Julius, but her life was full of serendipities.
From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2022
The dawning of knowledge, the instant of understanding, the way an idea comes together at once as if with the satisfying snap of a seat-belt buckle—such well-prepared serendipities are the mainsprings of “The Martian.”
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 9, 2015
The goal is to create strategic conversations, connecting people and creating serendipities.
From Forbes ● Dec. 5, 2014
"What a long strange trip it's been," from the 1970 Grateful Dead hit "Truckin'," has become a widely used description of life's serendipities.
From Reuters ● Sep. 16, 2013
And each of them is subject to the vagaries and serendipities of life.
From Washington Post ● May 14, 2012
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
