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accidence

American  
[ak-si-duhns] / ˈæk sɪ dəns /

noun

  1. the rudiments or essentials of a subject.

  2. Grammar.

    1. the study of inflection as a grammatical device.

    2. the inflections so studied.

accidence British  
/ ˈæksɪdəns /

noun

  1. inflectional morphology; the part of grammar concerned with changes in the form of words by internal modification or by affixation, for the expression of tense, person, case, number, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of accidence

1500–1510; < Latin accidentia, neuter plural of accidēns (present participle of accidere to fall, befall). See accident

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The Times leader writer, Oliver Kamm, author of Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English, says that the swearing lexicon now draws less from religion and more from body effluvia.

From BBC • Feb. 26, 2017

It is bracketed with the Vulgaria of Whittinton and the Vocabula and Accidence of Stanbridge as having fetched, the four together, 3s.

From Schools, School-Books and Schoolmasters by Hazlitt, W. Carew

"The Accidence and Principles of English Grammar;" 12mo, pp.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

The publication of an Accidence at that period gives some countenance to this tradition.

From Lives of the Poets, Volume 1 by Johnson, Samuel

Examples in Syntax, Accidence, and Style, for criticism and correction.

From Textiles For Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools; Also Adapted to Those Engaged in Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, Wool, Cotton, and Dressmaker's Trades by Dooley, William H. (William Henry)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.