[Vocabulary] Low odds

[holdenenglish]

Hi teachers

In the following sentence, does "low odds" mean higher chance? That is, it is likely that an infrastructure deal will be reached? The reason I'm asking this question is that when I looked up the meaning, I found this link saying "low odds" mean high chance (https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/high-odds-or-low-odds).

All agree that a dividend Congress would leave the direction of policy largely unchanged, with no major changes to tax, spending, or trade policies, and low odds of an infrastructure deal despite bipartisan support.

Source: Goldman Sachs Research

Cheers

Holden

 

[Roman55]

It means the exact opposite. Low odds = little chance.

 

[holdenenglish]

It means the exact opposite. Low odds = little chance.

Sorry. I missed the reason why I asked the question. I've added the link.

 

[Raymott]

This could be another auto-antonym. It's confusing.

• 1. The odds against you winning such a competition are enormous.
• 2. The odds against my horse winning (= that it will not win)/on my horse winning (= that it will win) are a hundred to one.
• https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/odds

1. could mean either that you are very likely to win or very unlikely to win. It would seem on the consensus meaning above that you probably won't win.
"The odds against you winning are 1000 to 1 (enormous)." (You're unlikely to win [by consensus]).
But if you're so unlikely to win, who is going to pay 1000:1 on your bet when you don't win?

"The odds on you winning are 1000 to 1 (enormous)." In betting terms, if you win, you will be paid 1000:1. So, it seems that you are very unlikely to win.
So, whether there are high odds on you winning or against you winning, you're still very unlikely to win.

 

[Roman55]

I don't agree with the opening statement in that link at all. Grammar Girl has ventured into a minefield by trying to define a word that has many conflicting uses, and limit the definition to one of them. In this case she is wrong.

The definition that supports what I said in post #2 can be found here at 1.1. I had a look at this page too, and in all of the entries I checked, at some point a similar definition appears.

When we talk about the odds of this or that happening in English, odds is used with the meaning of chances. High odds = high probability, and low odds = low probability/little chance. That's what it means.

In gambling it is not the same thing. The examples in post #5 appear to be statements made by ordinary people, not bookmakers or anyone professionally involved in gambling. It is not surprising that things become confusing, but that doesn't change the actual meaning of odds.

'The odds against you winning are 1000 to 1', is the layman's way of saying, 'The odds of you winning are 1000 to 1 against'. There is no room for interpretation in the second version. You only get paid 1000 times your bet if you do win.

'The odds on you winning are 1000 to 1'. This is totally confusing and in the real world you'd have to ask the person what they mean. However, if you were to say, 'The odds of you winning are 1000 to 1 on' that would mean that it is very likely that you win and a betting man would have to wager 1000 to win 1.

Getting back to ordinary language, if we talk about long or short odds rather than high or low odds, there is more agreement in the meaning between gambling and non-gambling vernacular. Long odds = improbable/unlikely, short odds = probable/likely.

 

[Raymott]

'The odds on you winning are 1000 to 1'. This is totally confusing and in the real world you'd have to ask the person what they mean.

Possibly, but that's from the Cambridge link (as above) as the opposite of "The odds against ...".
I agree with most of what you say. But betting occurs in the real world, and 'odds' is also used extensively in mathematics and probability theory.
It's not always apparent in which sense it's being used. Concerning the quote from your post, if you have to ask, a phrase such as "low odds" is auto-antonymous.