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perhaps

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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FromMiddle Englishperhappes,perhappous, variant of earlierperhap(“perhaps, possibly”), equivalent toper +‎hap(“chance, coincidence”) +‎-s, on model ofMiddle Englishparchaunce (modernperchance).[1]

Pronunciation

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  • (RP)IPA(key): /pəˈhæps/,/pəˈɹæps/,/ˈpɹæps/
  • (US)IPA(key): /pɚˈhæps/,(less commonly)/ˈpɹæps/
  • Audio(US):(file)
  • Audio(UK):(file)
  • Rhymes:-æps
  • Hyphenation:per‧haps

Adverb

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perhaps (notcomparable)

  1. Possibly.
    Perhaps John will come over for dinner.
    There was aperhaps credible witness.
    He was seriously wounded,perhaps fatally.
    • 1897 December (indicated as1898),Winston Churchill, chapter I, inThe Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.:The Macmillan Company; London:Macmillan & Co., Ltd.,→OCLC:
      The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, andperhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed.
    • 1918,W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, inThe Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.:The Bobbs-Merrill Company,→OCLC:
      With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history wasperhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.
    • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, inThe Guardian Weekly, volume188, number26, page36:
      It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]:perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].
  2. (dated) By chance.
    • c.1850, “Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl”:
      […] will live until he diesperhaps, and then lie down in clover.

Synonyms

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Related terms

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Translations

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indicating a lack of certainty

Noun

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perhaps (pluralperhapses)

  1. Anuncertainty.
    • 1870,The Missionary Herald, volumes66-67, page167:
      I cannot conceive what atheism, or skepticism, or positivism could do for me now, with their negations, and endless and contradictoryperhapses, andperhapses, andperhapses.

References

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  • “perhaps”, inOneLook Dictionary Search.
  1. ^Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “perhaps”, inOnline Etymology Dictionary.
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