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Glite Dictionary
❓ Doubt or uncertainty 🤔 Perhaps
peradventure

peradventure

9.9
Says that something might happen by chance
  • adverb
  • /ˌpɛrəˈvɛntʃər/
  • Archaic
translation icon : quizás
  • The treasure might, peradventure, still be hidden beneath the old oak tree.

Examples

  • Should you, peradventure, encounter him, give him my regards.

  • Peradventure, he will join us for dinner.

  • It may peradventure be thought that there never was such a time.

  • I wonder, peradventure, if they will arrive on time.

  • It may peradventure be thought that there never was such a time.

  • Should you, peradventure, encounter him, give him my regards.

  • The treasure might, peradventure, still be hidden beneath the old oak tree.

Synonyms

maybe
vsperadventure
∞ 1.0

It might happen or be true

is old fashioned and not used in casual modern speech
perhaps
vsperadventure
∞ 1.0

To say something might be true

is archaic and not used in ordinary modern speech
possibly
vsperadventure
∞ 1.0

May happen or be true and sometimes makes a request more polite

is archaic and carries an older tone rather than neutral modern use
by chance
vsperadventure
66 2.3

Happening without planning or intending

covers possibility too but is more old fashioned and formal
haply
vsperadventure
  • Archaic
1 9.9

In a way that happens by chance and not by plan

focuses on old fashioned possibility rather than accidental emphasis
perchance
vsperadventure
  • Archaic
9.9

Maybe in older or more formal writing

is more strictly old fashioned than the literary alternative
mayhap
vsperadventure
  • Archaic
9.9

People use it to say maybe in old or poetic language

is archaic too but less poetic and more formal in tone
percase
vsperadventure
  • Archaic
9.9

To show that something might happen

is the more traditional archaic form rather than a variant
adventitiously
vsperadventure
  • Formal
9.5

In a way that happens by chance or comes from an outside source

is mainly an old single-word form expressing simple possibility

How Certain

certainly
∞ 1.0
probably
∞ 1.0
peradventure
  • Archaic
9.9
maybe
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

peradventure positive
perhaps positive

Morphology

peradventure = adventure (opaque) = per + adventure

Formed from 'per' + 'adventure' historically, but the adverbial sense 'perhaps; possibly' is not derivable from the components for modern learners.

Etymology

Peradventure comes from the old phrase per aventure, which means 'by chance', with per- 'through' and adventure 'chance'. So as an adverb it means 'perhaps' or 'possibly', like saying something might happen by chance.