accidental

• accidentall (obsolete)

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

• IPA^(key): /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛn.tl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntəl
• Hyphenation: ac‧ci‧den‧tal

accidental (comparative more accidental, superlative most accidental)

2. 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.]
4. (music) Adjusted by one or two semitones, in temporary departure from the key signature. [from 16th c.]
6. Occurring sometimes, by chance; occasional. [from 16th c.]
8. Happening by chance, or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things; by accident, unintentional. [from 16th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, translation of original in French, 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].

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

• (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

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

• calcinated

Borrowed from Late Latin accidentālis.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ək.si.ðənˈtal]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ak.si.ðenˈtal]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al

accidental m or f (masculine and feminine plural accidentals)

1. accidental

• accidentalment

• accident

• “accidental”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “accidental”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “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.

• IPA^(key): /akθidenˈtal/
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: ac‧ci‧den‧tal

From accidenti +‎ -al.

accidental (plural accidentais)

1. accidental

From accidenti +‎ -al.

accidental

1. to have an accident

• Valeš, Miroslav (2021) Diccionariu de A Fala: lagarteiru, mañegu, valverdeñu (web)‎^[1], 2nd edition, Minde, Portugal: CIDLeS, published 2022, →ISBN

Borrowed from French accidentel.

• IPA^(key): /ak.t͡ʃi.denˈtal/

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

1. accidental

• accident

accidental (comparative mair accidental, superlative maist accidental)

1. accidental

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

Borrowed from Late Latin accidēntālis.

• IPA^(key): /aɡθidenˈtal/ [aɣ̞.θi.ð̞ẽn̪ˈt̪al] (Spain)
• IPA^(key): /aɡsidenˈtal/ [aɣ̞.si.ð̞ẽn̪ˈt̪al] (Latin America, Philippines)

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: ac‧ci‧den‧tal

accidental m or f (masculine and feminine plural accidentales)

1. accidental
2. nonessential

accidental m (plural accidentales)

1. (music) accidental

   Synonym: accidente

• “accidental”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024