accidental
Americanadjective
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happening by chance or accident; not planned; unexpected.
an accidental meeting.
- Synonyms:
- unintentional
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nonessential; incidental; subsidiary.
accidental benefits.
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Music. relating to or indicating sharps, flats, or naturals.
noun
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accidentals
plural
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a nonessential or subsidiary circumstance, characteristic, or feature.
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Music. a sign placed before a note indicating a chromatic alteration of its pitch.
adjective
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occurring by chance, unexpectedly, or unintentionally
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nonessential; incidental
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music denoting sharps, flats, or naturals that are not in the key signature of a piece
-
logic (of a property) not essential; contingent
noun
-
an incidental, nonessential, or supplementary circumstance, factor, or attribute
-
music a symbol denoting a sharp, flat, or natural that is not a part of the key signature
Usage
What does accidental mean? Accidental describes something that happens by chance or without planning, as in The hero has an accidental meeting with the villain early in the movie that sets the hero on his course. Accidental can also sometimes refer to something that comes about by chance. Example: We had to sign a contract saying we are aware of the possibility of accidental injury.
Synonym Usage
Accidental, casual, fortuitous all describe something outside the usual course of events. Accidental implies occurring unexpectedly or by chance: an accidental blow. Casual describes a passing event of slight importance: a casual reference. Fortuitous is applied to events occurring without known cause, often of a fortunate or favorable nature: a fortuitous shower of meteors. It often also implies good luck or good fortune: a fortuitous choice leading to rapid advancement.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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accidentalitynoun
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accidentalnessnoun
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nonaccidentalnessnoun
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nonaccidentaladjective
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preaccidentaladjective
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pseudoaccidentaladjective
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quasi-accidentaladjective
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unaccidentaladjective
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accidentallyadverb
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accidentlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of accidental
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Medieval Latin word accidentālis. See accident, -al 1
Explanation
Anything accidental happens by chance or unintentionally. People don't mean to do accidental things. An accident is something unforeseen that no one wanted to happen, like a car accident or getting hit by lightning. You can describe anything like that as accidental. Bumping into a stranger could be accidental. Forgetting to pay a bill is accidental. This word covers all the things that no one really meant or planned to happen. There are a lot of accidental events in the world, which is one reason insurance exists.
Vocabulary lists containing accidental
"Culture Clash"
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Music - High School
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -al, -ial
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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.
See Examples For:
The accidental use of an incorrect donor during an IVF procedure is extremely rare, they told us, and for an error of this magnitude to occur on multiple occasions suggests "negligence" or "deception".
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Over that period, the laboratory received 274 samples connected to 201 suspected cases of either deliberate or accidental poisoning across the UK, Ireland, and Gibraltar.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
It could be days or even weeks before the full picture of what happened and what we can learn from it is known - but for planetary geologists, this accidental collision is a scientific gift.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Maybe accidental spoilers are just par for the course?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
No doubt the LEP analysts had discovered his accidental invitation.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
This version needed to then be translated into conventional music using normal accidentals.
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2024
You have Blackwood’s old recording and scores, which look like familiar scores but have lots of odd accidentals in them.
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2024
Humans have long marveled at such exotic stragglers — which experts also refer to as waifs, rarities, extralimitals, casuals and accidentals — and what they suggest about the biological importance of wandering.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2022
In this year, which at home differed only in accidentals from other prosperous peacetime years, the U.S. also held an election.
From Time Magazine Archive
Pitches that are not in the key signature are called accidentals.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
