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

The size of the 20-year-old cohort in Japan presenting itself to the workforce and, incidentally, the military, is half of what it was in 1948.

From Barron's

Supporting the troops is good for morale—and, not incidentally, good for circulation.

From Salon

By the competition’s end, winner, runner-up and the rest have all been enriched by the experience—and so, not incidentally, has the audience.

From The Wall Street Journal

For that, Kelly was skewered on stage by Ben Shapiro, who incidentally was responsible for giving Owens her first podcast at the Daily Wire.

From Salon

“The Tower and the Ruin” is thus, in a sense, only incidentally about Tolkien’s creations.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• casually
• remotely