Accidental vs Happenstance - What's the difference?
accidental | happenstance |
Not essential; incidental, secondary.
(music) Adjusted by one or two semitones, in temporary departure from the key signature.
Occurring sometimes, by chance; occasional.
Happening by chance, or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things; by accident, unintentional.
*1603 , (John Florio), translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , 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 .
(geometry) Being a double point with two distinct tangent planes in 4-dimensional projective space.
A property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally.
* Fuller — He conceived it just that accidentals ... should sink with the substance of the accusation.
(painting, pluralonly) 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.
(music) A sharp, flat, or natural, occurring not at the commencement of a piece of music as the signature, but before a particular note.
(countable) A chance or random event or circumstance.
(uncountable) The chance or random quality of an event or circumstance.
* 1964 , ,
As nouns the difference between accidental and happenstance
is that accidental is a property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally while happenstance is a chance or random event or circumstance.As an adjective accidental
is not essential; incidental, secondary.accidental
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Synonyms
* adventitious, casual, contingent, fortuitous, incidental, occasional, serendipitousDerived terms
* accidental chords * accidental colors * accidental point * accidental lightsNoun
(en noun)happenstance
English
Noun
(en noun)- by happenstance
- James Bond: Once is happenstance , twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.
