incident

American  

[in-si-duhnt] / ˈɪn sɪ dənt /

noun

• incidents
  plural

1. an individual occurrence or event.

   Synonyms:

   happening

2. a distinct piece of action, or an episode, as in a story or play.

3. something that occurs casually in connection with something else.

4. something appertaining or attaching to something else.

5. an occurrence of seemingly minor importance, especially involving nations or factions between which relations are strained and sensitive, that can lead to serious consequences, as an outbreak of hostilities or a war.

   border incident; international incident.

6. an embarrassing occurrence, especially of a social nature.

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adjective

1. likely or apt to happen (usually followed byto ).

2. naturally appertaining.

   hardships incident to the life of an explorer.

3. conjoined or attaching, especially as subordinate to a principal thing.

4. falling or striking on something, as light rays.

incident British  

/ ˈɪnsɪdənt /

noun

1. a distinct or definite occurrence; event

2. a minor, subsidiary, or related event or action

3. a relatively insignificant event that might have serious consequences, esp in international politics

4. a public disturbance

   the police had reports of an incident outside a pub

5. the occurrence of something interesting or exciting

   the trip was not without incident

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adjective

1. related (to) or dependent (on)

2. having a subsidiary or minor relationship (with)

3. (esp of a beam of light or particles) arriving at or striking a surface

   incident electrons

Synonym Usage

See event.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonincident
  noun
• incidentless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• incidents
  plural

Etymology

Origin of incident

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin incident- (stem of incidēns “a happening,” noun use of present participle of Latin verb incidere “to fall upon, befall”), equivalent to Latin in- in- ² + -cid- (combining form of cad- “fall”) + -ent- -ent; see cadenza

Explanation

An incident refers to a particular happening, sometimes criminal but always noteworthy. If there was a food fight in the cafeteria, an e-mail might be sent to the parents of all students telling of the incident at school. The word incident is quite vague. It can refer to a humorous occurrence or a violent one, something that disturbed one's routine or something unusual that happened. If a child screams in a library, it's not that unusual, but if an adult does, that's an incident! As an adjective, incident is used in the field of physics to describe particles or radiation that fall on a surface. The incident light showed how dirty the windows were.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

incident incidents

In a statement on Sunday night, police said they had identified a 40-year-old man involved in the incident.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

“He lived here in the apartment complex, then barricaded himself into the apartment all day. They were able to get him out at about 3:30,” neighbor Kathy Kennedy told KTLA-TV after the incident.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

The Sydney Swans confirmed an incident involving an unspecified number of players had occurred in the hours after the team's win at Melbourne Cricket Ground.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

A video, external of the incident shows the elderly man patting the child on the head as he walked past her table at a food court in a shopping centre.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

The only untoward incident he had was that someone once stepped on his newly polished shoes—on purpose, he said.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Watch the video above to see why these likely aren’t the last incidents of models going rogue.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

The watchdog said a Fiosrú investigation relates to incidents involving contact with gardaí where a member of the public has died or been seriously injured.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

"We're going to see people ending up in really serious incidents with sharks."

From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026

“When it rains unfortunate incidents, it seems to come in buckets,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

This information wouldn’t excuse the crimes, but it might chip away at the stereotype by making a few of the incidents more understandable.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

Related Words

• circumstance
• episode
• event
• fact
• matter
• scene