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Offhand vs Accidental - What's the difference?

offhand | accidental |

As adjectives the difference between offhand and accidental

is that offhand is without planning or thinking ahead while accidental is not essential; incidental, secondary.

As an adverb offhand

is right away, immediately, without thinking about it.

As a noun accidental is

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

offhand

English

Alternative forms

* off-hand

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • without planning or thinking ahead
    • She gave an offhand speech.
  • careless; without sufficient thought or consideration
    • He doesn't realise how hurtful his offhand remarks can be.
  • curt, abrupt, unfriendly
    • She was quite offhand with me yesterday.

    Synonyms

    * (without planning) impromptu, extemporaneous, off-the-cuff; see also

    See also

    * off the top of one's head

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • right away, immediately, without thinking about it
  • * Offhand , I'd guess that that's a yellow-bellied sapsucker.
  • * 1854:' William Makepeace Thackeray, ''The Rose and the Ring'' - We will have no more of this shilly-shallying! Call the Archbishop, and let the Prince and Princess be married ' offhand !
  • in an offhand manner

    • Anagrams

    *

    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.