chancy

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of chancy Lifelong recommendations based on studies of roughly 50 patients and for no longer than three months seem a bit chancy. WSJ, 13 Sep. 2018 The early concerts have had a biting, chancy energy. New York Times, 21 June 2018 In a curious twist, Gunderson takes the story in an extremely chancy direction during the show’s final minutes. David Lyman, Cincinnati.com, 14 Apr. 2018 George Washington's chancy nighttime retreat from Brooklyn to Manhattan was a kind of Colonial-era Dunkirk. Benedict Cosgrove, Smithsonian, 13 Mar. 2017 In the 4500 block of Connecticut Avenue NW, Jeff Lucas watched a driver plow through the brown and turbulent waters in what had momentarily seemed to be a chancy undertaking. Martin Weil, Washington Post, 18 Aug. 2017 The point is that reporting on alleged facts that won’t take place for a decade or more in the future is chancy at best. Ed Wallace, star-telegram, 14 July 2017 Steve Jobs was making what was at the time an extraordinarily chancy wager. Edward C. Baig, USA TODAY, 23 June 2017 George Washington's chancy nighttime retreat from Brooklyn to Manhattan was a kind of Colonial-era Dunkirk. Benedict Cosgrove, Smithsonian, 13 Mar. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for chancy
Adjective
  • Like a proper millennial, Victor was glued to the third season of The White Lotus, which makes our one celebrity sighting at the Chateau particularly fortuitous.
    Jen Wang, Vogue, 27 May 2025
  • The new president has promised to be less hawkish than Yoon, and his timing is fortuitous.
    John Delury, Foreign Affairs, 3 June 2025
Adjective
  • Both shows just burn through villains in the most haphazard and jarring way, never really allowing for any of them to build up into something truly threatening, let alone interesting enough to carry the mantle of Big Bad.
    Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 22 June 2025
  • That fact was evident not only in the casualties and hostage-taking during the massacre, but in the grinding, brutal, and haphazard war in Gaza that has followed.
    Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 13 June 2025
Adjective
  • The prime time talent show is once again ruining our viewing of acts by constantly cutting in reaction shots of the audience, hosts and random people.
    Ticked Off, The Orlando Sentinel, 4 July 2025
  • Din Djarin, Boba Fett, and a random stormtrooper are all effectively evoked by these simple outfits.
    Fran Ruiz, Space.com, 4 July 2025
Adjective
  • Most hot-car deaths are accidental Being stressed can increase your likelihood of memory lapses that lead to leaving your child in a car, according to a prominent cognitive neuroscience expert who has researched the function of memory in such tragedies.
    Janet Loehrke, USA Today, 27 June 2025
  • Her manner of death was determined to be accidental.
    Madison E. Goldberg, People.com, 27 June 2025
Adjective
  • There is also a risk of inadvertent inhalation of spray sunscreen particles, especially when products are used on children.
    Arlene Blum, Forbes.com, 22 June 2025
  • The second major change, which compounded this problem, was the largely inadvertent breakdown of prepublication licensing.
    Fara Dabhoiwala, Harpers Magazine, 4 June 2025
Adjective
  • But the haphazard rollout of unprecedented global tariffs in April and the White House’s goal of reshaping the postwar order indicate that upheaval is not just incidental but a central policy objective.
    REBECCA LISSNER, Foreign Affairs, 24 June 2025
  • The fact that Israel actually plunged the dagger into the deceased is incidental.
    Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 13 June 2025
Adjective
  • Big lottery wins around the U.S. include a lucky lottery ticketholder in California who won a $1.27 billion Mega Millions jackpot in December 2024.
    Jay Cannon, USA Today, 27 June 2025
  • Now that Ben and Matt and their team have set their sights firmly on the high bar of the theatrical market, Sony is lucky as hell to be partnering with them.
    Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline, 26 June 2025
Adjective
  • Since 1982 the home at the university, which is one of the most powerful cultural institutions in the right-wing evangelical movement, has housed women with unplanned pregnancies.
    Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 3 July 2025
  • In hybrid models, leaders often lose the unplanned opportunities for empathy, coaching and team cohesion.
    Alba Contreras Rodriguez, Forbes.com, 18 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Chancy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chancy. Accessed 8 Jul. 2025.

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