Circumstance vs Accident - What's the difference?
circumstance | accident | Related terms |
That which attends, or relates to, or in some way affects, a fact or event; an attendant thing or state of things.
* Washington Irving
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
, title=
, chapter=1 An event; a fact; a particular incident.
* Addison
* 1834 , David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of , Nebraska 1987, p. 20:
Circumlocution; detail.
* Shakespeare
Condition in regard to worldly estate; state of property; situation; surroundings.
* Addison
To place in a particular situation, especially with regard to money or other resources.
* 1858 , , Chapter 8:
*
An unexpected event with negative consequences occurring without the intention of the one suffering the consequences.
* c.1603 , (William Shakespeare), , I-iii,
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Any chance event.
(uncountable) Chance.
* c.1861-1863 , (Richard Chevenix Trench), in 1888, Letters and memorials , Volume 1,
*
(transport, vehicle) An unintended event such as a collision that causes damage or death.
Any property, fact, or relation that is the result of chance or is nonessential.
* 1883 , , Social life in Greece from Homer to Menander? ,
(euphemistic) An instance of incontinence.
* 2009 , Marcia Stedron, My Roller Coaster Life as an Army Wife , Xlibris Corporation, ISBN 1462817890,
(euphemistic) An unintended pregnancy.
(philosophy, logic) A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness'', ''softness .
* 1902 , William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience , Folio Society 2008, page 171:
(grammar) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, case.
(geology) An irregular surface feature with no apparent cause.
(heraldry) A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms.
(legal) casus; such unforeseen, extraordinary, extraneous interference as is out of the range of ordinary calculation.
(military) An unplanned event that results in injury (including death) or occupational illness to person(s) and/or damage to property, exclusive of injury and/or damage caused by action of an enemy or hostile force.
(uncountable, philosophy, uncommon) Appearance, manifestation.
* 14thC , (Geoffrey Chaucer), '' in ''(The Canterbury Tales) ,
* 1677 , Heraclitus Christianus: or, the Man of Sorrow , chapter 3, page 14:
* 1989 , Iysa A. Bello, The medieval Islamic controversy between philosophy and orthodoxy , page 55:
* 2005 , Muhammad Ali Khalidi, Medieval Islamic philosophical writings , page 175:
* 2010 , T. M. Rudavsky, Maimonides , page 142:
As nouns the difference between circumstance and accident
is that circumstance is that which attends, or relates to, or in some way affects, a fact or event; an attendant thing or state of things while accident is an unexpected event with negative consequences occurring without the intention of the one suffering the consequences.As a verb circumstance
is to place in a particular situation, especially with regard to money or other resources.circumstance
English
Alternative forms
* circumstaunceNoun
(en noun)- The circumstances are well known in the country where they happened.
citation, passage=“The story of this adoption is, of course, the pivot round which all the circumstances of the mysterious tragedy revolved. Mrs. Yule had an only son, namely, William, to whom she was passionately attached ; but, like many a fond mother, she had the desire of mapping out that son's future entirely according to her own ideas. […]”}}
- The sculptor had in his thoughts the conqoeror weeping for new worlds, or the like circumstances in history.
- Then another circumstance happened, which made a lasting impression on my memory, though I was but a small child.
- So without more circumstance at all / I hold it fit that we shake hands and part.
- When men are easy in their circumstances , they are naturally enemies to innovations.
Derived terms
{{der3, attendant circumstance , extenuating circumstances , under no circumstance , under the circumstances}}Verb
(circumstanc)- Tidings had in some shape reached is ears that his father was not comfortably circumstanced as regarded money.
accident
English
(wikipedia accident)Noun
- Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances, / Of moving accidents by flood and field
Philip J. Bushnell
Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance, passage=Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident . Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, another solvent, which has the well-known property of causing this type of cancer.}}
- Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident , / It is the very place God meant for thee;
- This accident , as I call it, of Athens being situated some miles from the sea, which is rather the consequence of its being a very ancient site,
page 56:
- We weren’t there long when Karin asked about our dog. When we told her Chris was in the car, she insisted we bring him up to the apartment. I rejected her offer and said he might have an accident on the carpet and I didn’t want to worry about it.
- If they went through their growth-crisis in other faiths and other countries, although the essence of the change would be the same, its accidents would be different.
- These cookes how they stamp, and strain, and grind, / And turne substance into accident , / To fulfill all thy likerous talent!
- But as to Man, all the Fruits of the Earth, all sorts of Herbs, Plants and Roots, the Fishes of the Sea, and the Birds of the Air do not suffice him, but he must disguise, vary, and sophisticate, change the substance into accident , that by such irritations as these, Nature might be provoked, and as it were necessitated.
- Nonetheless, those who have no evidence of the impossibility of the transformation of accident into substance believe that it is death itself which will be actually transformed into a ram on the Day of Resurrection and then be slaughtered.
- It would also follow that God ought to be able to transmute genera, converting substance into accident , knowledge into ability, black into white, and sound into smell, just as he can turn the inanimate into animate
- nor can God effect the transmutation of substances (from accident' into substance, or substance into '''accident''', or substance without ' accident ).