accidental
adjective
[ aksɪˈdɛnt(ə)l ]
• happening by chance, unintentionally, or unexpectedly.
• "a verdict of accidental death"
Similar:
fortuitous,
chance,
occurring by chance/accident,
adventitious,
fluky,
coincidental,
casual,
serendipitous,
random,
aleatory,
unexpected,
unforeseen,
unanticipated,
unlooked-for,
unintentional,
unintended,
inadvertent,
involuntary,
unplanned,
unpremeditated,
unthinking,
unmeant,
unwitting,
unknowing,
unconscious,
subconscious,
mistaken,
misguided,
• incidental; subsidiary.
• "the location is accidental and contributes nothing to the poem"
Similar:
incidental,
unimportant,
by the way,
by the by,
supplementary,
subsidiary,
subordinate,
secondary,
marginal,
minor,
lesser,
accessory,
peripheral,
tangential,
extraneous,
extrinsic,
parenthetical,
irrelevant,
immaterial,
beside the point,
of little account,
unnecessary,
non-essential,
inessential,
• (in Aristotelian thought) relating to or denoting properties which are not essential to a thing's nature.
accidental
noun
• a sign indicating a momentary departure from the key signature by raising or lowering a note.
• "horn parts are usually written without key signature, the necessary accidentals being added"
• another term for vagrant.
Origin:
late Middle English (in accidental (sense 2 of the adjective and sense 3 of the adjective)): from late Latin accidentalis, from Latin accident- ‘happening’ (see accident).
