perhaps

English

Alternative forms

• perhap

Etymology

From Middle English perhappes, perhappous, variant of earlier perhap (“perhaps, possibly”), equivalent to per +‎ hap (“chance, coincidence”) +‎ -s.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈhæps/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɚˈhæps/
• (General American, Received Pronunciation, colloquial, uncommon) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹæps/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æps
• Hyphenation: per‧haps

Adverb

perhaps (not comparable)

1. Possibly.

   Perhaps John will come over for dinner.

   There was a perhaps credible witness.

   He was seriously wounded, perhaps fatally.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

2. (dated) By chance.
   • c. 1850, “Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl”:

     […] will live until he dies perhaps, and then lie down in clover.

Synonyms

• bechance
• belike
• maybe
• mayhap
• mayhaps
• peradventure
• perchance

Related terms

• perhapser

Translations

indicating a lack of certainty

• Albanian: ndoshta (sq)
• Arabic: رُبَّمَا (rubbamā), مِن اَلْمُمْكِن (min al-mumkin), لَعَلَّ (ar) (laʕalla)

  North Levantine Arabic: بلكي (balki), بركي (barki), بيجوز (biʒu:z), ممكن (mumken), احتمال ((i)ħtima:l)

• Armenian: միգուցե (hy) (migucʻe)
• Azerbaijani: bəlkə (az)
• Bashkir: бәлки (bəlki), мөмкин (mömkin), ихтимал (ixtimal)
• Basque: beherbada
• Belarusian: мо́жа быць (móža bycʹ), магчы́ма (mahčýma), мо́жа (móža), ма́быць (mábycʹ), мо (mo) (informal)
• Bikol Central: tibaad (bcl)
• Breton: marteze (br)
• Bulgarian: мо́же би (móže bi)
• Catalan: potser (ca), tal vegada (ca), possiblement (ca)
• Cherokee: ᎠᏎᏱᎩ (aseyigi), ᎠᏎᏛ (asedv)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 也許／也许 (zh) (yěxǔ), 或許／或许 (zh) (huòxǔ), 或是 (zh) (huòshì), 可能 (zh) (kěnéng)

• Coptic: ⲁⲣⲏⲩ (arēu)
• Corsican: forse
• Czech: možná (cs), snad (cs)
• Danish: måske (da)
• Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: misschien (nl), wellicht (nl)
• Esperanto: eble
• Estonian: ehk (et), järsku (et), vahest, võib-olla (et), võibolla (et), äkki (et)
• Faroese: kanska
• Finnish: ehkä (fi), mahdollisesti (fi), kenties (fi)
• French: peut-être (fr), possiblement (fr)
• Friulian: forsit
• Galician: se cadra (gl), tal vez, quizais (gl), cecais, quizaves, seica
• Gallo: ventieil'
• Georgian: შესაძლოა (šesaʒloa), ეგებ (egeb), იქნებ (ikneb)
• German: vielleicht (de), wohl (de)
• Greek: ίσως (el) (ísos), μάλλον (el) (mállon), ενδεχομένως (el) (endechoménos), μήπως (el) (mípos)

  Ancient: ἴσως (ísōs)

• Gujarati: કદાચ (kadāc)
• Hausa: yiwu (ha), iya (ha)
• Hawaiian: paha, malia
• Hebrew: אוּלַי (he) (ulái)
• Hindi: शायद (hi) (śāyad), कदाचित् (hi) (kadācit)
• Hungarian: talán (hu)
• Icelandic: kannski (is)
• Ido: forsan (io)
• Indonesian: mungkin (id), barangkali (id), mungkin saja
• Interlingua: forsan
• Inuktitut: ᐃᒻᒪᖄ (immaqaa)
• Irish: b'fhéidir
• Istriot: fuorsi
• Italian: forse (it)
• Japanese: 多分 (ja) (たぶん, tabun), 若しや (ja) (もしや, moshiya), …かもしれない (ja) (...kamo shirenai), …でしょう (ja) (deshō), 恐らく (ja) (osoraku), もしかして (moshikasite), ひょっとして (hyottoshite)
• Kazakh: мүмкін (mümkın)
• Khmer: ប្រហែល (km) (prɑhael)
• Korean: 아마 (ko) (ama), 아마도 (ko) (amado), 어쩌면 (ko) (eojjeomyeon)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بەڵکوو (bellkû), بەشکوم (beşkum), بەشکوو (beşkû), ڕەنگە (renge)

  Northern Kurdish: belkî (ku)

• Kyrgyz: балким (ky) (balkim), мүмкүн (ky) (mümkün)
• Lao: ບາງທີ (bāng thī)
• Latin: fortasse, forsitan, fors, forsit, forte (la), forsan, fortassis
• Latvian: varbūt
• Lithuanian: galbūt
• Livonian: agā
• Lushootseed: ʔəx̌id kʷa, ʔəx̌id la
• Macedonian: можеби (možebi)
• Malay: barangkali
• Malayalam: ഒരുപക്ഷേ (ml) (orupakṣē)
• Maori: āwhai (used before a phrase), pea (mi) (used after a phrase), ētia
• Mirandese: talbeç
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: магадгүй (mn) (magadgüj)

• Ngazidja Comorian: amɓesee
• Norman: p'tête (Guernsey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kanskje (no), kan hende, må hende, muligens (no), muligvis (no)

  Nynorsk: kanskje, kan henda, må henda, mogelegvis

• Occitan: benlèu (oc), bensai (oc)
• Ojibwe: maagizhaa
• Old English: weald þēah
• Old Norse: nǫkkut, léttliga, má
• Pashto: شايد (ps) (šāyád)
• Persian: شاید (fa) (šâyad), گاس (fa) (gâs) (dialectal)
• Plautdietsch: veleicht
• Polish: może (pl), bodaj (pl)
• Portuguese: talvez (pt)
• Quechua: ichá
• Romanian: poate (ro), posibil (ro)
• Russian: возмо́жно (ru) (vozmóžno), мо́жет быть (ru) (móžet bytʹ), мо́жет (ru) (móžet) (colloquial), наве́рное (ru) (navérnoje)
• Sanskrit: स्यात् (sa) (syāt)
• Scots: aiblins
• Scottish Gaelic: 's dòcha, 's mathaid, dh'fhaoidte
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: мо̀жда, мо̏гӯће

  Roman: mòžda (sh), mȍgūće

• Sicilian: forsi (scn), fraci (scn)
• Slovak: možno, snáď (sk), môžbyť
• Slovene: mordà (sl), mogóče (sl)
• Spanish: acaso (es), quizá (es), quizás (es), tal vez (es)
• Swahili: huenda, pingine
• Swedish: kanske (sv), möjligen (sv) (expressing doubts)
• Tajik: шояд (tg) (šoyad), мумкин (mumkin), эҳтимол (tg) (ehtimol)
• Talysh:

  Asalemi: شاید (šâyad)

• Taos: yúhi
• Tatar: бәлки (tt) (bälki), мөмкин (mömkin), ихтимал (tt) (ixtimal)
• Thai: ไม่แน่ (mâi-nɛ̂ɛ), บางที (th) (baang-tii)
• Turkish: belki (tr)
• Turkmen: belki (tk)
• Ugaritic: 𐎎𐎐𐎄𐎓 (mndʿ)
• Ukrainian: ма́буть (mábutʹ), мо́же бу́ти (móže búty), можли́во (možlývo), (colloquial) мо́же (móže), пе́вно (pévno)
• Urdu: شاید (ur) (śāyad), غالباً (ġāliban)
• Uyghur: بەلكى (belki), مۇمكىن (mumkin)
• Uzbek: balki (uz), ehtimol (uz)
• Vietnamese: có lẽ (vi), có thể (vi)
• Volapük: ba (vo)
• Welsh: efallai (cy)
• Yiddish: אפֿשר (efsher)

Noun

perhaps (plural perhapses)

1. An uncertainty.
   • 1870, The Missionary Herald, volumes 66-67, page 167:

     I cannot conceive what atheism, or skepticism, or positivism could do for me now, with their negations, and endless and contradictory perhapses, and perhapses, and perhapses.

References

• “perhaps”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.