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incidental

[in-si-den-tl]
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adjective
  1. happening or likely to happen in an unplanned or subordinate conjunction with something else.
  2. incurred casually and in addition to the regular or main amount: incidental expenses.
  3. likely to happen or naturally appertaining (usually followed by to).
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noun
  1. something incidental, as a circumstance.
  2. incidentals, minor expenses.
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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

See more synonyms for incidental on Thesaurus.com
1. casual, chance, fortuitous; contingent.

Antonyms

1. fundamental.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for incidentals

Historical Examples

  • 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.

British Dictionary definitions for incidentals

incidental

adjective
  1. happening in connection with or resulting from something more important; casual or fortuitous
  2. (postpositive foll by to) found in connection (with); related (to)
  3. (postpositive foll by upon) caused (by)
  4. occasional or minorincidental expenses
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noun
  1. (often plural) an incidental or minor expense, event, or action
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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.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper