Accidental
English
Adjective
Accidental (comparative more Accidental, superlative most Accidental)
- Happening by chance, or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things; casual; fortuitous
- An accidental revelation
- Nonessential; not necessary belonging; incidental
- (music) Foreign to the key signature or a proper harmony.
- unintentional; by accident
Noun
Accidental (plural Accidentals)- 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.
- (in the plural, painting) 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.
Adverbs for Accidental (adjective)
scarcely; obviously; presumably; luckily; purposely; wholly; comically; inexplicably; curiously; mysteriously; certainly; undoubtedly; admittedly; undeniably; ludicrously; purportedly; evidently; supposedly; awkwardly; tragically; plainly; rarely.
Usage notes for Accidental (adjective)
- We speak of a thing as accidental when it falls out as by chance, and not in the regular course of things; as, an accidental meeting, an accidental advantage, etc.
- We call a thing incidental when it falls, as it were, into some regular course of things, but is secondary, and forms no essential part thereof; as, an incidental remark, an incidental evil, an incidental benefit.
- We speak of a thing as casual, when it falls out or happens, as it were, by mere chance, without being prearranged or premeditated; as, a casual remark or encounter; a casual observer. An idea of the unimportant is attached to what is casual.
- Fortuitous is applied to what occurs without any known cause, and in opposition to what has been foreseen; as, a fortuitous concourse of atoms.
- We call a thing contingent when it is such that, considered in itself, it may or may not happen, but is dependent for its existence on something else; as, the time of my coming will be contingent on intelligence yet to be received.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Etymology
Compare French accidentel, earlier accidental.
Pronunciation
Thesaurus
accessory; accident; accidentally; accompanying; addendum; addition; additional; adjunct; ado; adscititious; adventitious; afloat; afoot; aleatory; appendage; appurtenance; appurtenant; ascititious; auxiliary; breve; by-the-way; casual; casually; causeless; chance; chancy; circumstantial; coincident; coincidental; collateral; conditional; contingency; contingent; crotchet; current; demisemiquaver; dependent; destinal; dicey; doing; dominant; dominant note; double whole note; eighth note; enharmonic; enharmonic note; eventuating; extra; fatal; fatidic; flat; fluky; fortuitous; fortuitously; going on; half note; happening; happenstance; hemidemisemiquaver; iffy; in hand; in the wind; inadvertent; incidental; indeterminate; inessential; lucky; mere chance; minim; musical note; natural; nonessential; not-self; note; occasional; occurring; odd; on; on foot; ongoing; other; parenthetical; passing; patent note; prevailing; prevalent; provisional; quarter note; quaver; random; report; responding note; resultant; risky; secondary; semibreve; semiquaver; serendipitous; shaped note; sharp; sixteenth note; sixty-fourth note; spiccato; staccato; subsidiary; superadded; superaddition; superfluous; supervenient; supplement; supplemental; supplementary; sustained note; taking place; tercet; thirty-second note; tone; triplet; unanticipated; uncalculated; uncaused; under way; undesigned; undetermined; unessential; unexpected; unforeseeable; unforeseen; unintended; unintentional; unlooked-for; unlucky; unmeant; unplanned; unpredictable; unpremeditated; unpurposed; unwitting; whole note
Translations
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Translations
Catalan
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -aɫ
Adjective
Romanian
Adjective
Accidental mn nom/acc forms
Spanish
Adjective
- accidental
Noun
- (music) accidental
