accidentally

Sometimes ac·ci·dent·ly

[ak-si-den-tl-ee]

adverb

1. 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.

2. in a nonessential or subsidiary way; incidentally.

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

Other Word Forms

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of accidentally¹

accidental ( def. ) + -ly

Example Sentences

Fearful she might accidentally break a dish, Ms. Gulati had not removed the dinner service from her attic in years.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The blaze started accidentally on the second floor of a three-storey block, two flats were heavily damaged by fire and several more were smoke-logged, the West Midlands Fire Service said.

Read more on BBC

Then during the preliminary evening gown round on Wednesday night, Miss Jamaica accidentally fell onstage and had to be rushed out of the theatre in a stretcher.

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He said the pair had "found and photographed five pieces of scrambled texts that I had accidentally placed in the archive boxes all those years ago."

Read more on Barron's

I don’t want to see Autumn accidentally impaled by one of the Eloko trees.

Read more on Literature

Related Words

• unintentionally 
• unwittingly 

When To Use

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.