odds

English

Etymology

From odd (“uneven, strange”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɑdz/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɒdz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒdz

Noun

odds pl (plural only)

1. The ratio of the probability of an event happening to that of it not happening.

   I'd say the odds are strongly in favor of the sun rising tomorrow morning.

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     A thouſand Perſean horſemen are at hand,
     Sent from the King to ouercome vs all. […]
     A thouſand horſmen? We fiue hundred foote?
     An ods too great, for vs to ſtand againſt: […]

2. The ratio of winnings to stake in betting situations.

   I looked at the odds given by all bookmakers.

3. (chess) An advantage given to a weaker opponent in order to equalize the game when playing casually, usually by removing one of the stronger player's pieces or by giving the weaker player more time.

   She beat me with knight odds but lost with rook odds.

   The grandmaster gave his opponents significant time odds, of one minute versus ten minutes.

   • 1913, The British Chess Magazine, volume 33, Trubner & Company, page 51:

     The resulting match of fourteen games was won by Mr. Maurian, who had scored all the Knight-odds parties and the majority of the even-term ones!

   • 1989, Raymond Keene, The Simon & Schuster Pocket Book of Chess, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 183:

     Nowadays, giving material odds in this way is rather rare, but the advent of the chess clock has made it possible for strong players to give time odds — taking one or two minutes for all their moves, for example, and allowing their opponents five minutes or more.

   • 1998, George W. Atkinson, Chess and Machine Intuition, Intellect, →ISBN, page 35:

     Harry Golombek, who had returned from Argentina with the British chess team but spent two years in the infantry before joining B.P., occasionally played chess with Turing, giving Queen odds in order to make the game more equal.

   • 2016 November 27, Oliver Roeder, “The World Chess Championship Comes Down To The Final Game”, in FiveThirtyEight‎^[1], archived from the original on 2022-05-26:

     And finally, if those are tied, they'll play a final sudden-death game, using a format known as armageddon. In armageddon, black gets "time odds": White gets five minutes while black gets just four, but a draw counts as a win for black.

   • 2018 September 23, Binit Priyaranjan, “Queens on the Board, Pawns in the Sport – the Underrepresentation of Women in Chess”, in The Wire‎^[2], archived from the original on 2021-05-06:

     Fischer described all female professionals' play at his time to be that of "beginners", and went on to boast about hypothetically beating any female chess player with knight odds (when challenged to the same, though, he didn't respond).

   • 2021, Larry Kaufman, Chess Board Options, New in Chess, →ISBN:

     The most important handicap historically is knight odds, because it produces play more similar to a normal game than handicaps like f7 and multiple moves, while still being a suitable handicap for rather strong players.

   • 2022 October 31, Luci Kelemen, “Nakamura wins 2022 Fischer Random Chess Championship, Carlsen slides to top-four finish”, in Dot Esports‎^[3], archived from the original on 2022-12-17:

     Here, Nakamura took the white pieces and the time odds with the mandatory win requirement, and managed to break Nepomniachtchi's resistance to clinch the title.

Noun

odds

1. plural of odd

Usage notes

• The word "odds" was formerly sometimes used with a singular verb, e.g. (Stephen S. Foster) "If there be any difference in the two crimes, the odds is in favor of the foreign enslaver."

Derived terms

• against all odds
• at all odds
• at odds
• beat the odds
• by all odds
• even odds
• implied odds
• lay odds
• long odds
• make no odds
• may the odds be ever in your favor
• odds against
• odds and bods
• odds and ends
• odds and sods
• odds and sods
• odds are
• odds bud
• odds it
• odds match
• odds on
• odds-on
• over the odds
• play the odds
• pot odds
• reverse implied odds
• short odds
• shout the odds
• take odds
• what are the odds

 

Descendants

• → Welsh: ots

Translations

the ratio of the probabilities of an event happening to that of it not happening

• Afrikaans: kansverhouding
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: шанс (bg) m (šans)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Czech: šance (cs) f
• Dutch: de kansen
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: vetosuhde (rare)
• French: chances (fr) f pl
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Wahrscheinlichkeit (de) f
• Greek: πιθανότητα (el) f (pithanótita)
• Indonesian: kemungkinan (id)
• Irish: corrlach m, seans m
• Italian: possibilità (it) f pl
• Japanese: オッズ (ozzu)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: вероја́тност f (verojátnost), и́згледи m pl (ízgledi), ша́нси f pl (šánsi)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: odds m

  Nynorsk: odds m

• Portuguese: chances f pl
• Russian: вероя́тность (ru) f (verojátnostʹ), ша́нс (ru) m (šáns) or ша́нсы (ru) m pl (šánsy)
• Spanish: probabilidad (es) f
• Tagalog: kahigtan
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: khả năng (vi)

the ratio of winnings to stake in betting situations

• Czech: kurs (cs) m
• Finnish: kerroin (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can
• German: Gewinnquote (de) f
• Greek: απόδοση (el) f (apódosi)
• Hungarian: szorzó (hu)
• Irish: corrlach m
• Italian: probabilità (it)
• Japanese: 勝算 (ja) (shōsan), 勝ち目 (ja) (kachime)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: odds m

  Nynorsk: odds m

See also

• even money
• evens

Anagrams

• DDoS, OSDD, DDOs, DDOS, dods, Dods

Icelandic

Noun

odds

1. indefinite genitive singular of oddur

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From English odds.

Noun

odds m (definite singular oddsen, indefinite plural odds, definite plural oddsene)

1. odds

References

• “odds” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From English odds.

Noun

odds m (definite singular oddsen, indefinite plural odds, definite plural oddsa)

1. odds

References

• “odds” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.