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Fri 14 Sep, 2007 11:12 pm
"What are the odds? "
what's the meaning of the sentense?thanks a lot.
In this usage, "odds" refers to the likelyhood of a particular thing happening.
"What are the odds" is betting talk.
I don't understand the ins and outs of betting, but when someone says, "The odds are good that...." the prospect is favorable.
Or, "The odds are against ...." the event is unlikely to happen.
In your question, the querent wants to know the points for and against the situation succeeding.
To illustrate further, bookmakers "give odds" of a particular event happening, for example that a particular horse will win a race. These odds are expressed as a ratio using the word "to" or a hyphen thus "Ten to one" or "10-1". If you bet ("staked") one dollar/pound/euro/whatever on a horse at 10-1, and it won the race, you would get eleven back - your stake money is returned and also you get "winnings", calculated by multiplying the stake by the odds.
Alone, the (probably rhetorical) question "what are the odds?" would indicate that a very unlikely event had just taken place.