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

A major incident had been called as the wildfire spread across more than 500 acres and destroyed the 19 homes.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

“It basically started in a residential neighborhood,” said Chris Buckley, a spokeswoman for the unified incident command fighting the blaze.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

"The circumstances that led to the incident should be thoroughly reviewed, those responsible should be identified, and the strictest possible action should be taken."

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

Most have done so without incident but an insurer owned by Golden Gate Capital was put into liquidation by Connecticut regulators in January after its reinsurance deals backfired.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Even Mutti had stopped being angry with Karli about the compass incident.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

It comes in the wake of recent high-profile industrial incidents, such as a near-miss chemical disaster in Garden Grove that prompted thousands of evacuations in May.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

The “Family Docudrama” series and much that followed read as something like autofiction, drawn from life but juiced up, rephrased, with gestures and incidents isolated and amplified.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

Stokes and Atkinson breached an England team curfew that was introduced following late-night incidents during the winter.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

There have been 745 total reported incidents, including 22 crashes or fires and five injury incidents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

Two incidents followed that seemed to spell the end for the Hunley.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

Related Words

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