on purpose
Idioms-
Deliberately, intentionally, as in He left the photo out of the story on purpose . Shakespeare's use of this idiom was among the earliest; it appears in The Comedy of Errors (4:3): “On purpose shut the doors against his way.”
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accidentally on purpose . Seemingly accidentally but actually deliberately, as in She stepped on his foot accidentally on purpose . This generally jocular phrase was first recorded in 1862.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Venegas is now adding her voice to this shared-but-fractured written history; albeit, not entirely on purpose.
From Los Angeles Times • May 11, 2026
"Socially I can be very awkward – not on purpose – but when it comes to football, I'm really open and happy," he says.
From BBC • Mar. 23, 2026
“Whenever you tell an old story, you change it, sometimes on purpose and sometimes in ways you don’t exactly control,” he writes.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026
NBA teams are increasingly losing games on purpose to improve their draft prospects and basketball must consider every possible remedy to stamp out deliberate "tanking," the league's chief said Saturday.
From Barron's • Feb. 14, 2026
“That was just a freak head butt. It wasn’t on purpose or nothin’.”
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
