I. ə̇ˈvent, ēˈ- chiefly South sometimes ˈēˌv- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin eventus, from eventus, past participle of evenire to happen, from e- + venire to come — more at come
1.
a.
(1) : something that happens : occurrence
this day's event has laid on me the duty of opening out my heart — William Wordsworth
such an event would shock the conscience of the world
(2) : course of events : activity , experience
ending my brief account of long event — D.C.Peattie
from his dark berth he could see without moving this whole immense and immediate theater of human event — Thomas Wolfe
— often used in plural
events proved the folly of such calculations
b. : a noteworthy occurrence or happening : something worthy of remark : an unusual or significant development
her new book was the intellectual event of the year
the great event of his childhood was a voyage to America
the flat monotonous plains stretch away … a single tree becomes an event — Alan Moorehead
2.
a. obsolete : the end to which a person or thing comes : fate
b.
(1) archaic : the outcome or consequence of anything : issue , conclusion , result
then very doubtful was the war's event — Edmund Spenser
curiosity as to the event of an evening which had raised such splendid expectations — Jane Austen
(2) : the issue or outcome of a legal action or proceeding as finally determined
c. : an outcome, condition, or contingency that is assumed or postulated : case , eventuality — used chiefly in the phrase in the event
in the event of the king's death, the prince succeeds
in the event he has not been told, I will tell him
in the event you are right, I have been tricked and cheated
3.
a. : any one of the contests in a program of sports
track and field events
b. : a competitive contest of a specified kind or class
a bow shot in the same manner as in a regulation target event
c. : fixture 3a(1)
4. : an occurrence, phenomenon, or complex of processes occupying a restricted portion of four-dimensional space-time : a happening represented by a point designated by x, y, and z as coordinates of place and t as time in the space-time continuum, it being a fundamental assumption of the theory of relativity that all physical measurements reduce to observations of relations between happenings
Synonyms: see effect , occurrence
•
- at all events
- in any event
- in the event
II. noun
: a subset of the possible outcomes of a statistical experiment
7 is an event representing 12 possible outcomes in the throwing of two dice