incidental

[in-si-den-tl]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR incidental ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

happening or likely to happen in an unplanned or subordinate conjunction with something else.

incurred casually and in addition to the regular or main amount: incidental expenses.

likely to happen or naturally appertaining (usually followed by to).

noun

something incidental, as a circumstance.

incidentals, minor expenses.

Origin of incidental

First recorded in 1610–20; incident + -al¹

Related formsin·ci·den·tal·ness, nounnon·in·ci·den·tal, adjectivenon·in·ci·den·tal·ly, adverbun·in·ci·den·tal, adjectiveun·in·ci·den·tal·ly, adverb

Can be confusedincidence incidents incidental

Synonyms for incidental

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR incidental ON THESAURUS.COM

1. casual, chance, fortuitous; contingent.

Antonyms for incidental

1. fundamental.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for incidentals

information, component, feature, element, thing, piece, trivia, point, dispatch, aspect, news, minutia, story, matter, scrap, novelty, detail, note, blurb, notice

Examples from the Web for incidentals

Historical Examples of incidentals

Mr. Bixby meant that he was to be at no expense in port, or for incidentals.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete
Albert Bigelow Paine
Your father said that I might pay you five francs a day for incidentals and pocket money.
Rollo in Paris
Jacob Abbott
They forgot that the booking is as nothing, the incidentals everything.
The Lure of the Mask
Harold MacGrath
It was the incidentals which had cut into our small reserve.
Land of the Burnt Thigh
Edith Eudora Kohl
This objection would hold if reason and wisdom were incidentals.
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 4
Plotinos (Plotinus)

British Dictionary definitions for incidentals

incidental

adjective

happening in connection with or resulting from something more important; casual or fortuitous

(postpositive foll by to) found in connection (with); related (to)

(postpositive foll by upon) caused (by)

occasional or minorincidental expenses

noun

(often plural) an incidental or minor expense, event, or action

Derived Formsincidentalness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for incidentals

incidental

adj.

"casual, occasional," 1610s, from Medieval Latin incidentalis, from incidens (see incident (n.)). Incidentals (n.) "'occasional' expenses, etc.," is attested by 1707.