odds
nounUS /ɑdz/ · UK /ɒdz/
Etymology From odd (“uneven, strange”).
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.
- 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: […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [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:
2
The ratio of winnings to stake in betting situations.
- I looked at the odds given by all bookmakers.
3
Board games, Chess, Games 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.
4 more examples
- 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!1913, The British Chess Magazine, volume 33, Trubner & Company, page 51:
- 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.1989, Raymond Keene, The Simon & Schuster Pocket Book of Chess, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 183:
- 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.1998, George W. Atkinson, Chess and Machine Intuition, Intellect, →ISBN, page 35:
- 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.2016 November 27, Oliver Roeder, “The World Chess Championship Comes Down To The Final Game”, in FiveThirtyEight, archived from the original on 26 May 2022: