Standard Lemma guide

hap

noun · verb · 12 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /hæp/
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -æp
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AE1 P Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A person's lot (good or bad), luck, fortune, fate.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A stroke of good or bad luck, an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, countable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Happenings; events; goings-on.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, in-plural, slang

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A wrap, such as a quilt or a comforter. Also, a small or folded blanket placed on the end of a bed to keep feet warm.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Pennsylvania, Scotland, UK, Western, archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

Any of the cichlid fishes of the tribe Haplochromini.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

Abbreviation of hospital-acquired pneumonia.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, uncountable

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

Initialism of hazardous air pollutant.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

verb

Meaning 8

To happen; to befall; to chance.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, intransitive, literary

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: come to pass, occur, transpire, bechance, befall, behap, belimp, betide, betime, beworth, chance, come about, crop up, evene, eventuate, go on, hap, happen, hold, pass, take place, tide

Antonyms: none provided

9

verb

Meaning 9

To happen to.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, literary, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

10

verb

Meaning 10

To wrap, clothe.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, dialectal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

11

noun

Meaning 11

an accidental happening

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • he recorded all the little haps and mishaps of his life

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: accident, stroke, fortuity, chance event

12

verb

Meaning 12

come to pass

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • What is happening?
  • The meeting took place off without an incidence
  • Nothing occurred that seemed important

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: happen, go on, pass off, occur, pass, fall out, come about, take place

Antonyms: none provided

Narrower terms: break, recrudesce, develop, arise, come up, result, intervene, transpire, give, operate, supervene, proceed, go, come, fall, anticipate, recur, repeat, go off, come off, go over, come around, roll around, happen, materialize, materialise, befall, bechance, betide, concur, coincide, backfire, backlash, recoil, chance, shine, strike, turn out, synchronize, synchronise, contemporize, contemporise

History

Etymology

From Middle English hap, happe (“chance, hap, luck, fortune”), potentially cognate with or from Old English ġehæp (“fit, convenient”) and/or Old Norse happ (“hap, chance, good luck”), from Proto-Germanic *hampą (“convenience, happiness”), from Proto-Indo-European *kob- (“good fortune, prophecy; to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed”). Cognate with Icelandic happ (“hap, chance, good luck”). Related also to Icelandic heppinn (“lucky, fortunate, happy”), Old Danish hap (“fortunate”), Swedish hampa (“to turn out”), Old Church Slavonic кобь (kobĭ, “fate”), Old Irish cob (“victory”). The verb is from Middle English happen, perhaps from Old English hæppan (“to move accidentally, slip”) and/or from Old Norse *happa, *heppa, from Proto-Germanic *hampijaną (“to fit in, be fitting”), from the noun. Cognate with Old Danish happe (“to chance, happen”), Norwegian heppa (“to occur, happen”).

Clipping of happening.

Inherited from Old English hap.

Shortening of New Latin Haplochromis

Across languages

Translations

1 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • French: heur — luck, fortune, fate