Odds

How to spell odds

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce odds

What does odds mean?

1. nounThe ratio or probability that measures how likely something is to happen, especially in betting.
2. nounA state of disagreement or conflict between people or things, used in the phrase 'at odds'.

Odds in a sentence

• The bookmaker shortened the odds on the favourite horse.

• The two managers were at odds over the new budget.

• The odds of winning the lottery are extremely low.

• His account of the meeting was at odds with the written record.

Where does odds come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word grows out of 'odd', which English took from the Old Norse word 'oddi', literally meaning a 'point of land' or the angular point of a triangle. Because a triangle has one point left over that has no matching pair, the Norse term came to describe a single unpaired thing, and from there the sense of a 'leftover' or 'uneven' number developed. English speakers adopted 'odd' in the medieval period, and by the 1500s the plural 'odds' was being used to mean an inequality or difference between two things. From that idea of difference came the gambling sense, the ratio that measures how unequal the chances are, and the phrase 'at odds', meaning two parties are unequal or in conflict. The spelling trap is small but real: the word is always written with a double 'd' and a final 's', and learners sometimes drop one 'd' by mistake.

How the word is built

• odd (from Old Norse oddi: point, triangle, odd number)
• -s (plural)

Words that sound like odds

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• odd: Different from what is usual or expected; strange or peculiar.