Word Study
serendipity
OXFORD DICTIONARY
serendipity, n. the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident.
Derivative
serendipitous adj. serendipitously adv.
Etymology
coined by Horace Walpole (1754) after The Three Princes of Serendip (Sri Lanka), a fairy-tale
THESAURUS
serendipity
accidentality, actuarial calculation, adventitiousness, break, bringing to light, casual discovery, casualness, catching, chance, chance discovery, destiny, detection, determination, determining, disclosure, discovery, distinguishment, espial, excavation, exhumation, exposure, fate, find, finding, finding out, flukiness, fortuitousness, fortuity, fortune, gamble, good fortune, good luck, hap, happenstance, happy chance, heedless hap, how they fall, indeterminacy, indeterminateness, invention, law of averages, locating, location, lot, luck, lucky strike, moira, opportunity, principle of indeterminacy, probability, problematicness, random sample, recognition, rediscovery, revelation, risk, run of luck, spotting, statistical probability, strike, the breaks, theory of probability, treasure trove, trouvaille, trove, uncertainty, uncertainty principle, uncovering, unearthing, whatever comesFor further exploring for "serendipity" in Webster Dictionary Online