incidentally

American  

[in-si-den-tl-ee, -dent-lee] / ˌɪn sɪˈdɛn tl i, -ˈdɛnt li /

adverb

1. apart or aside from the main subject of attention, discussion, etc.; by the way; parenthetically.

   Incidentally, while you were waiting for the officer to run your registration through the system, did you notice if the post office was open?

2. in the course of something else, and not intentionally.

   The bone fractures were discovered only incidentally, during an unrelated CT scan of her chest.

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incidentally British  

/ ˌɪnsɪˈdɛntəlɪ /

adverb

1. as a subordinate or chance occurrence

2. (sentence modifier) by the way

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Etymology

Origin of incidentally

First recorded in 1655–65; incidental + -ly

Example Sentences

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the lone dissenter, frames Colorado’s law as prohibiting merely “a dangerous therapy modality that, incidentally, involves provider speech.”

From The Wall Street Journal

But he was the oldest of Clare’s fungi, and also, incidentally, the closest thing he had to a friend.

From Literature

Ford dreamed up the atomic-age Nucleon, powered by a tiny nugget of uranium and incidentally requiring tons of lead shielding to protect anyone who came within a football field of the thing.

From Los Angeles Times

You are not “cleaning the fridge” so much as moving through a series of small, highly achievable acts, one after the other, until—almost incidentally—the fridge is clean.

From Salon

For this, incidentally, you have to go through the process of signing up for a Kalshi account, including the usual anti-money-laundering rules.

From MarketWatch

Related Words

• casually
• remotely