accidental

accidental

English

Etymology

From Middle English accidental, from Anglo-Norman accidentel, Middle French accidentel, accidental, and their source, Late Latin accidēntālis; corresponding to accident +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌæk.sɪ.ˈdɛn.tl̩/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntəl

Adjective

accidental (comparative more accidental, superlative most accidental)

1. Pertaining to accident and not essence; thus, inessential; incidental; secondary. [from 14th c.]

   Hyponym: instantial

   1. (philosophy) Nonessential to something's inherent nature (especially in Aristotelian thought). [from 14th c.]
2. (music) Adjusted by one or two semitones, in temporary departure from the key signature. [from 16th c.]
3. Occurring sometimes, by chance; occasional. [from 16th c.]
4. Happening by chance, or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things; by accident, unintentional. [from 16th c.]
   • 1603, John Florio, Essays, translation of original by Michel de Montaigne, III.1:

     The way to trueth is but one and simple, that of particular profit and benefit of affaires a man hath in charge, double, uneven and accidentall [translating fortuite].

5. (geometry) Being a double point with two distinct tangent planes in 4-dimensional projective space.

Synonyms

• (not essential): circumstantial, incidental; See also Thesaurus:circumstantial
• (nonessential to something's inherent nature): See also Thesaurus:extrinsic
• (happening by chance): adventitious, casual, contingent, fortuitous, incidental, occasional, serendipitous; See also Thesaurus:accidental

Derived terms

• accidental abortion
• accidental chord
• accidental chords
• accidental color
• accidental colors
• accidental colour
• accidental death
• accidental gap
• accidental light
• accidental lights
• accidentally
• accidentalness
• accidental point

 

Translations

happening by chance

Arabic: عَرْضِيّ‎ (ʿarḍiyy) Armenian: պատահական (hy) (patahakan) Bashkir: осраҡлы (osraqlı) Belarusian: выпадко́вы (vypadkóvy), неспадзява́ны (njespadzjavány) (unexpected) Bulgarian: случа́ен (bg) (slučáen), неоча́кван (bg) (neočákvan) (unexpected) Catalan: accidental (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 偶然 (zh) (ǒurán) Czech: nahodilý, náhodný (cs) Danish: tilfældig Dutch: toevallig (nl) Esperanto: neatendita, hazarda, akcidenta Finnish: sattumanvarainen (fi), sattumalta (fi) French: accidentel (fr) Georgian: შემთხვევითი (šemtxveviti) German: versehentlich (de), zufällig (de) Greek: τυχαίος (el) (tychaíos) Ancient: τυχαῖος (tukhaîos) Hebrew: מִקְרִי‎ (mikrí) Hungarian: véletlen (hu) Irish: aimseach, toirmeascach Italian: accidentale (it) Japanese: 偶然の (ja) (ぐうぜん, gūzen no) Korean: 우연하다 (uyeonhada), 돌발적(突發的) (ko) (dolbaljeok) Macedonian: случаен (slučaen) Maori: kōpeka Norwegian: Bokmål: tilfeldig (no) Persian: تصادفی‎ (fa) (tasâdofi) Polish: przypadkowy (pl) Portuguese: acidental (pt) Romanian: accidental (ro), întâmplător (ro) Russian: случа́йный (ru) (slučájnyj), неожи́данный (ru) (neožídannyj) (unexpected) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: слу̏ча̄јан, нена́мјеран Roman: slȕčājan (sh), nenámjeran (sh) Slovak: náhodný Slovene: naključen Spanish: accidental (es), casual (es), imprevisto (es), fortuito (es) Swedish: tillfällig (sv) Tajik: тасодуфӣ (tg) (tasodufī) Tatar: очраклы (oçraqlı) Ukrainian: випадко́вий (uk) (vypadkóvyj), несподі́ваний (nespodívanyj) (unexpected) Uzbek: tasodifiy (uz)

Noun

accidental (plural accidentals)

1. A property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally.
   • 1662, Fuller, Worthies of England:

     He conceived it just that accidentals ... should sink with the substance of the accusation.

2. (painting, plural only) Those fortuitous effects produced by luminous rays falling on certain objects so that some parts stand forth in abnormal brightness and other parts are cast into a deep shadow.
3. (music) A sharp, flat, or natural, occurring not at the commencement of a piece of music as the signature, but before a particular note.
4. Part of a text that has a mainly structural purpose, such as spelling, punctuation, or capitalization.

   Coordinate term: substantive

Translations

a property which is not essential

Bulgarian: несъществено качество (nesǎštestveno kačestvo) German: Zufall (de) m, Versehen (de) n

(in plural, painting)

Portuguese: acidente (pt) m

(music)

Afrikaans: byteken Catalan: accident (ca) m Finnish: etumerkki (fi) French: altération (fr) f Greek: αλλοίωση (el) f (alloíosi) Hungarian: módosítójel (hu) Norwegian: Bokmål: løst fortegn n Nynorsk: laust forteikn n Portuguese: acidente (pt) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Indonesian: (please verify) kebetulan (id) Interlingua: (please verify) accidental Italian: (please verify) accidentale (it) Japanese: (please verify) 偶然 (ja) (ぐうぜん, gūzen)

Anagrams

• calcinated

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Catalan

Etymology

From Late Latin accidēntālis.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -al

Adjective

accidental (masculine and feminine plural accidentals)

1. accidental

Derived terms

• accidentalment

Related terms

• accident

Further reading

• “accidental” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “accidental”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
• “accidental” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “accidental” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French accidentel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ak.t͡ʃi.denˈtal/

Adjective

accidental m or n (feminine singular accidentală, masculine plural accidentali, feminine and neuter plural accidentale)

1. accidental

Declension

Declension of accidental

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	accidental		accidentală	accidentali	accidentale
	definite	accidentalul		accidentala	accidentalii	accidentalele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	accidental		accidentale	accidentali	accidentale
	definite	accidentalului		accidentalei	accidentalilor	accidentalelor

Related terms

• accident

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Scots

Adjective

accidental (comparative mair accidental, superlative maist accidental)

1. accidental

References

• Eagle, Andy, editor (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

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Spanish

Etymology

From Late Latin accidēntālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /aɡθidenˈtal/ [aɣ̞.θi.ð̞ẽn̪ˈt̪al]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /aɡsidenˈtal/ [aɣ̞.si.ð̞ẽn̪ˈt̪al]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: ac‧ci‧den‧tal

Adjective

accidental (plural accidentales)

1. accidental
2. nonessential

Derived terms

• accidentalidad
• accidentalmente

Related terms

• accidente

Noun

accidental m (plural accidentales)

1. (music) accidental

   Synonym: accidente

Further reading

• “accidental”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014