accidental
Americanadjective
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happening by chance or accident; not planned; unexpected.
an accidental meeting.
- Synonyms:
- unintentional
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nonessential; incidental; subsidiary.
accidental benefits.
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Music. relating to or indicating sharps, flats, or naturals.
noun
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a nonessential or subsidiary circumstance, characteristic, or feature.
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Music. a sign placed before a note indicating a chromatic alteration of its pitch.
adjective
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occurring by chance, unexpectedly, or unintentionally
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nonessential; incidental
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music denoting sharps, flats, or naturals that are not in the key signature of a piece
-
logic (of a property) not essential; contingent
noun
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an incidental, nonessential, or supplementary circumstance, factor, or attribute
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music a symbol denoting a sharp, flat, or natural that is not a part of the key signature
Usage
What does accidental mean? Accidental describes something that happens by chance or without planning, as in The hero has an accidental meeting with the villain early in the movie that sets the hero on his course. Accidental can also sometimes refer to something that comes about by chance. Example: We had to sign a contract saying we are aware of the possibility of accidental injury.
Synonym Usage
Accidental, casual, fortuitous all describe something outside the usual course of events. Accidental implies occurring unexpectedly or by chance: an accidental blow. Casual describes a passing event of slight importance: a casual reference. Fortuitous is applied to events occurring without known cause, often of a fortunate or favorable nature: a fortuitous shower of meteors. It often also implies good luck or good fortune: a fortuitous choice leading to rapid advancement.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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accidentalitynoun
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accidentalnessnoun
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nonaccidentalnessnoun
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nonaccidentaladjective
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preaccidentaladjective
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pseudoaccidentaladjective
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quasi-accidentaladjective
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unaccidentaladjective
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accidentallyadverb
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accidentlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of accidental
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Medieval Latin word accidentālis. See accident, -al 1
Explanation
Anything accidental happens by chance or unintentionally. People don't mean to do accidental things. An accident is something unforeseen that no one wanted to happen, like a car accident or getting hit by lightning. You can describe anything like that as accidental. Bumping into a stranger could be accidental. Forgetting to pay a bill is accidental. This word covers all the things that no one really meant or planned to happen. There are a lot of accidental events in the world, which is one reason insurance exists.
Vocabulary lists containing accidental
"Culture Clash"
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Music - High School
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -al, -ial
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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.
See Examples For:
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the Emmy-nominated actor who starred as Theo Huxtable for eight seasons on “The Cosby Show,” died on July 20, 2025, in an accidental drowning while on vacation at Playa Grande, Cahuita, Limón.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
My first gray whale sighting was entirely accidental.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Although most incidents involved accidental dosing or therapeutic mistakes rather than intentional misuse, the sheer size of the increase surprised the research team.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
The cut-outs themselves evolved over time, taking on various compositional and even accidental patterns on Matisse’s studio walls, before being glued by assistants onto a final surface.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
“Fatalities in parking lots made up 1.25 percent of all accidental deaths during the last days of the Age of Mortality. Last night I decided I would choose today’s subject from a parking lot.”
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
This version needed to then be translated into conventional music using normal accidentals.
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2024
You have Blackwood’s old recording and scores, which look like familiar scores but have lots of odd accidentals in them.
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2024
Humans have long marveled at such exotic stragglers — which experts also refer to as waifs, rarities, extralimitals, casuals and accidentals — and what they suggest about the biological importance of wandering.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2022
In this year, which at home differed only in accidentals from other prosperous peacetime years, the U.S. also held an election.
From Time Magazine Archive
But some care must be taken to correctly transpose accidentals.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
