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Accidental vs Incidentally - What's the difference?

accidental | incidentally |

As an adjective accidental

is not essential; incidental, secondary.

As a noun accidental

is a property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally.

As an adverb incidentally is

in an incidental manner; not of central or critical importance.

accidental

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • 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.

    • Synonyms

    * adventitious, casual, contingent, fortuitous, incidental, occasional, serendipitous

    Derived terms

    * accidental chords * accidental colors * accidental point * accidental lights

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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.

    • incidentally

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (manner) In an incidental manner; not of central or critical importance.
    • The book discussed the subject, but only incidentally .
  • By chance; in an unplanned way.
  • (speech act, conjunctive) Parenthetically, by the way.
    • Incidentally , did you hear anything new from your brother yesterday?

    Synonyms

    apropos, as a matter of fact, by the way

    Antonyms

    * (in an incidental manner) inevitably, certainly