accidence
Americannoun
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the rudiments or essentials of a subject.
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Grammar.
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the study of inflection as a grammatical device.
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the inflections so studied.
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noun
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.
It was Belgian's worst rail accidence since 2001 when eight people were killed and 12 were injured in a head-on collision between commuter trains outside Brussels.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2010
Under regulations drawn up in 1570 by the school's patron, Sir Nicholas Bacon, enrollment was limited to 12 underprivileged boys who had "learned their accidence without books and can wright indifferently."
From Time Magazine Archive
I’m very sorry for this accidence, but I’m not to blame.
From The Irish Fairy Book by Various
Tell him I hope to hear a good account of his accidence and nomenclature when I return.
From Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution with a Memoir of Mrs. Adams by Abigail Adams
But, for all that I am, and have done here, I need not have gone beyond my accidence.
From Charlemont; Or, the Pride of the Village. a Tale of Kentucky by William Gilmore Simms
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.
