Synonyms

accidentally

American

[ak-si-den-tl-ee] / ˌæk sɪˈdɛn tl i /

Sometimes accidently

adverb

by chance or mistake; in a way that is not planned or intended.

If you break your key, whether accidentally or on purpose, there is a $40 charge to replace it.
in a nonessential or subsidiary way; incidentally.

Philosophy is essentially a vocation, and only accidentally a profession.

Usage

Spelling tips for accidentally The word accidentally is hard to spell because it can be hard to remember which letters are doubled and which are not. To add to the confusion, there are two possible spellings of accidentally. While less common, accidently is also an acceptable spelling of the word. How to spell accidentally: It's no accident that many animals have two eyes to see (C) And two ears to Listen (L). This reminds you that the letters c and l are doubled in accidentally, with an a in between.

Other Word Forms

nonaccidentally adverb
preaccidentally adverb
pseudoaccidentally adverb
quasi-accidentally adverb
unaccidentally adverb

Etymology

Origin of accidentally

accidental ( def. ) + -ly

Explanation

If something happens accidentally, it didn't happen on purpose — blame it on a mistake, chance, or outside forces. There are things you mean to do, like brushing your hair or buttoning your shirt. Then there are things you do accidentally: you didn't mean for them to happen, but they happened anyway. Just about all spilled milk happens accidentally. If a surgeon leaves a scalpel in a patient, let's hope he did it accidentally. And if a football bounces off a defender into the running back's arms and he scores a touchdown, he made a great play — accidentally.

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Vocabulary lists containing accidentally

Selection Vocabulary 2, Unit 2

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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.

I kept accidentally catching Noah’s eye in the mirror, and through facial expressions, tried to communicate that I was having fun and in no way subtly judging his yoga practice.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026

Anthropic is racing to contain the fallout after accidentally exposing the underlying instructions it uses to direct Claude Code, the popular artificial-intelligence agent app that has won the company an edge with developers and businesses.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

Anthropic accidentally released part of the internal source code for its AI-powered coding assistant Claude Code due to "human error," the company said Tuesday.

From Barron's • Apr. 1, 2026

In the past, I’ve accidentally given incorrect public transit information when writing about how to get to a museum, or reported the wrong number of poles in the product description for a tent.

From Slate • Mar. 28, 2026

It did not take long for the Cultural Properties Bureau to send down divers to probe the area where the celadon vases had been accidentally hauled in.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

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