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.

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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

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Etymology

Origin of accidence

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

Example Sentences

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

The utter futility of the old accidence has been inferred from it, and urged, even in some well-written books, with all the plausibility of a fair and legitimate deduction.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold

There are to be no lessons in grammar or accidence as such, nor of course any verse compositions except for older boys specialising in classics.

From Cambridge Essays on Education by Various

All toward boys, good scholars of their times; The least of these is past his accidence, Some at qui mihi; here's not a boy But he can construe all the grammar rules.

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 9 by Various

Related Words

• alphabet
• syntax