serendipity

noun ser·en·dip·i·ty \ ˌser-ən-ˈdi-pə-tē \

|Updated on: 2 Aug 2018

Examples: serendipity in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Where Does 'Serendipity' Come From?

Definition of serendipity

: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for; also : an instance of this

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Examples of serendipity in a Sentence

As they leapfrog from South Africa to Singapore in search of local delicacies, the authors prove again and again that serendipity is the traveler's strongest ally: many of their most memorable meals issue from the hands of generous strangers … —Sarah Karnasiewicz, Saveur, June/July 2008
If reporters fail to keep these files, they seldom luck into bigger stories. Their investigative work typically happens only by design—analyzing the news, for instance—not by serendipity. —Michael J. Bugeja, Editor & Publisher, 13 Jan. 2003
A week earlier, the doctor would have had no recourse but to make an incision in the baby's skin to get to a vein—a precarious option now, since time was running short and it would take nearly half an hour to assemble the necessary equipment. But in an extraordinary bit of serendipity, Hanson had attended a seminar on emergency medical care for children just a week before. —David Ruben, Parenting, December/January 1996
They found each other by pure serendipity.

Recent Examples of serendipity from the Web

The idea for mitochondrial transplants was born of serendipity, desperation and the lucky meeting of two researchers at two Harvard teaching hospitals — Dr. Emani at Boston Children’s and James McCully at New England Deaconess Hospital.

— New York Times, "Dying Organs Restored to Life in Novel Experiments," 10 July 2018
The serendipity of this offseason is that Moreno landed the Japanese Babe Ruth without having to break the bank.

— stephanie apstein, SI.com, "The Greatest Curiosity: Shoehei Ohtani Fashions the Angels Into Baseball's Most Interesting Team," 19 Mar. 2018
But in an eCommerce world, there’s still not a lot of companies that have nailed the idea of serendipity or discovery shopping, the kind of shopping a lot of people still do in the physical world.

— recode staff, Recode, "Full video and transcript: Stitch Fix CEO Katrina Lake at Code 2018," 30 May 2018
Here’s where Three Identical Strangers veers from a tale of lovely serendipity to one of a deliberate, unethical tampering with people’s lives.

— refinery29.com, "The Extremely Dark Side To The Buzzy Documentary Three Identical Strangers," 28 June 2018
Talk about serendipity: The Timbers have found their stride under first-year manager Giovanni Savarese, who is quieting anyone who doubted his credentials as Portland limped through the start of the season.

— avi creditor, SI.com, "The MLS XI, Week 12: Portland Picks up the Pace; Wins but Worry in New York," 21 May 2018
These delicacies and the sentiments that come with them are not serendipity.

— c.j. chivers, Popular Mechanics, "My Father's Garden: The Life My Dad Passed Down to Me," 19 June 2016
Coates, like any of the best editors, could take that kind of serendipity and turn it into something that felt deliberate and powerful.

— david sims, The Atlantic, "Remembering the Cinematic Magic of Anne V. Coates," 10 May 2018
The Dress seemed like a fluke, a one-off moment of miraculous serendipity.

— julie beck, The Atlantic, "What's Up With All These Viral Illusions?," 18 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'serendipity.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Where Does 'Serendipity' Come From?

In the mid-1700s, English author Horace Walpole stumbled upon an interesting tidbit of information while researching a coat of arms. In a letter to his friend Horace Mann he wrote: "This discovery indeed is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word, which as I have nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavor to explain to you: you will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called 'The Three Princes of Serendip': as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of…." Walpole's memory of the tale (which, as it turns out, was not quite accurate) gave serendipity the meaning it retains to this day.