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Added 28 September 2026

serendipity

/ˌser.ənˈdɪp.ə.ti/ noun

In Latin: none, coined in 1754 Coined: 1754, by Horace Walpole Wiktionary

noun Definition written for WordofTheDay.US. More about serendipity at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

The occurrence of finding pleasant or valuable things by chance, without looking for them.
Meeting her old college roommate on a train in Kyoto was pure serendipity.

Origin

From Serendip (“variant of Serendib: Ceylon, Sri Lanka”) + -ity. Coined by English writer and politician Horace Walpole in 1754 based on the Persian story of the Three Princes of Serendip, who (Walpole wrote to a friend) were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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