Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Accidentally |
AccidentallyAdverb1. Without advance planning; "they met accidentally". 2. In an incidental manner; "these magnificent achievements were only incidentally influenced by Oriental models". 3. Without intention; in an unintentional manner; "she hit him unintentionally". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "accidentally" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Serendipity is finding something unexpected and useful while searching for something else entirely.The word was coined by Horace Walpole in the 18th century, from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip (Serendip is an old name for the island now known as Sri Lanka)
It is used as a sociological method in Anselm L. Strauss' and Barney G. Glaserss Grounded Theory, building on ideas by sociologist Robert K. Merton, who in Social Theory and Social Structure (1949) claimed that serendipity was an Indian concept.
Serendipity is also the name of a club in New York City where Andy Warhol used to frequent.
In addition, Serendipity is the name of a romantic movie starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Serendipity."
Synonyms: AccidentallySynonyms: by chance (adv), circumstantially (adv), incidentally (adv), unexpectedly (adv), unintentionally (adv). (additional references) |
| Antonym: intentionally (adv). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Chance 2 | Adverb: by chance, accidentally, by accident; casually; perchance; (possibly); for aught one knows; as good would have it, as bad would have it, as luck would have it, as ill-luck would have it, as chance would have it; as it may be, as it may chance, as it may turn up, as it may happen; as the case may be. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | You only remember the bad stuff, don't you? What about the big band I got to play at that party, do you remember that? No, you only remember that my skirt accidentally twirled up (Postcards from the Edge; writing credit: Carrie Fisher) Remind me when we have time, to record it on tape so I can accidentally erase it. (Maude; writing credit: Colette Deréal) I could be giving you a spanking and accidentally snap your spinal cord (Malcolm in the Middle; writing credit: Daniel Frenette) You could be walking down the street tomorrow, feeling good about yourself, drink free, drug free, looking forward to the future and somebody accidentally nudges their poodle off of a 75th floor ledge (Denis Leary: No Cure for Cancer; writing credit: Denis Leary) So if I accidentally walk through you, does that mean that we've, you know, done it (Family Guy; writing credit: Dolores Payás) | |
Movie/TV Titles | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
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| "Boys running on the beach" by Annie Andre Commentary: "The boys running on the beach at break neck speeds. Sorry about the small file size. Accidentally cropped it waaay too much. ." | "Film 5" by Philip Jackson Commentary: "Film like the others in this folder, accidentally exposed..." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | A fetus accidentally exposed to this drug may develop abnormally. (references) | |
Tapeworm eggs that are accidentally swallowed by another person can cause infection. (references) | ||
Infection is spread when infective eggs are accidentally ingested by a person or animal. (references) | ||
Economic History | Papua New Guinea | In 1526-27, Don Jorge de Meneses accidentally came upon the principal island and is credited with naming it "Papua," a Malay word for the frizzled quality of Melanesian hair. (references) |
Human Rights | Korea | Defectors have reported families being punished because children had accidentally defaced photographs of one of the two Kims. (references) |
Korea | For example, defectors have reported families being punished because children had accidentally defaced photographs of one of the two Kims. (references) | |
Minorities | Burma | Other reports indicated that the priest was shot accidentally and the four persons taken hostage were not associated with him. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | DEPUTY, n. A male relative of an office-holder, or of his bondsman. The deputy is commonly a beautiful young man, with a red necktie and an intricate system of cobwebs extending from his nose to his desk. When accidentally struck by the janitor's broom, he gives off a cloud of dust. "Chief Deputy," the Master cried, "To-day the books are to be tried By experts and accountants who Have been commissioned to go through Our office here, to see if we Have stolen injudiciously. Please have the proper entries made, The proper balances displayed, Conforming to the whole amount Of cash on hand -- which they will count. I've long admired your punctual way -- Here at the break and close of day, Confronting in your chair the crowd Of business men, whose voices loud And gestures violent you quell By some mysterious, calm spell -- Some magic lurking in your look That brings the noisiest to book And spreads a holy and profound Tranquillity o'er all around. So orderly all's done that they Who came to draw remain to pay. But now the time demands, at last, That you employ your genius vast In energies more active. Rise And shake the lightnings from your eyes; Inspire your underlings, and fling Your spirit into everything!" The Master's hand here dealt a whack Upon the Deputy's bent back, When straightway to the floor there fell A shrunken globe, a rattling shell A blackened, withered, eyeless head! The man had been a twelvemonth dead. Jamrach Holobom |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Accidentally" is generally used as an adverb (general) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Accidentally" is used about 546 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adverb (general) | 100% | 546 | 11,360 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "accidentally": accidentally-on-purpose. | |
Ending with "accidentally": not-quite-accidentally, semi-accidentally. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
accidentally | 12 |
accidentally nude | 11 |
accidentally naked | 5 |
accidentally exposed | 5 |
accidentally topless | 4 |
accidentally breast | 3 |
accidentally nudity | 3 |
accidentally in naked public | 2 |
accidentally exposed thong | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "accidentally"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | rastësisht (at a venture, at times, by accident, by chance, casually, circumstantially, incidentally, overly). (various references) | |
Arabic | من غير قصد (unaware, unawares), صدفة (accident, at a venture, chance, coincidence, contingency, haphazard, happening, incidentally, scallop, seashell, shell), بالصدفة (casual, fortuitously, haply, indiscriminate, passing, random), بالأتفاق. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | случайно (at random, by accident, by chance, casually, circumstantially, fortuitously, happily, idly, incidentally, occasionally, on occasion, perchance, sporadically). (various references) | |
Chinese | 偶然地 (Adventitiously, Casually). (various references) | |
Czech | náhodou (at random, by chance, by mistake, if and when, occasionally, perchance). (various references) | |
Danish | varmdeformation i alfa-gammaomraadet udfoeres undertiden ved et tilfaelde,enten i overfladen af smede-eller valsegods eller over hele tvaersnittet i yderenden af et meget langt emne (either on the surface of forged or rolled products or over their full thickness at the extremity of a very long product, hot deformation in the transformation range is sometimes carried out accidentally), spændingssætte utilsigtet (to energise accidentally, to energize accidentally), sætte utilsigtet under spænding (to energise accidentally, to energize accidentally). (various references) | |
Dutch | per ongeluk (by accidence, unintentionally). (various references) | |
Finnish | satunnaisesti (incindentally, occasionally), sattumalta (by accident, by chance). (various references) | |
French | accidentellement (by accident), par hasard (by accident), malheuresement. (various references) | |
German | zufaelligerweise, zufällig (accidental, adventitious, by any chance, by chance, by hazard, casual, casually, chance, coincidental, coincidentally, fortuitous, fortuitously, haphazard, incidental, incidentally, on occasion, perchance, perchancely, random, stochastic), unglücklicherweise (unfortunately, unhappily, unluckily, unsuccessful). (various references) | |
Greek | συμπτωματικώσ (symptomatically). (various references) | |
Hawaiian | rastësisht. (various references) | |
Hebrew | במקרה (by accident, by chance, hit or miss, incidentally), באקראי (at a venture, at random, by chance, fortuitously), בדרך מקרה (at random, perchance). (various references) | |
Hungarian | véletlenségből, véletlenül (as it fall out, at a venture, at random, by accident, by chance, by coincidence, eventually, haphazard, haphazardly, haply, happily, incidentally, perchance), esetlegesen (by chance, incidentally, possibly). (various references) | |
Indonesian | secara tak sengaja, secara kebetulan (perchance). (various references) | |
Italian | accidentalmente. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | ひょう窃 (by chance, flutter, frail, hurt, lanky, long and thin, maybe, perhaps, piracy, plagiarism, possibly, smart, swaying, tall and thin, to feelcool, unexpectedly, unsteady steps), ひもじい思い (by chance, state of feeling hungry, suddenly, with agility), 偶々 (by chance, casually, unexpectedly), 偶偶 (by chance, casually, unexpectedly), ふて腐れる (aimlessly, by chance, casually, dizzy, limp, pooh!, reel, soft, stagger, suddenly, to become irresponsible, to become sulky, totter, unexpectantly, unsteady on one's feet), 不図 (casually, incidentally, suddenly, unexpectedly, unintentionally). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たまたま (by chance, casually, unexpectedly), ひょっと (possibly), ひょいと (by chance, suddenly, with agility), ふらっと (aimlessly, by chance, casually, suddenly, unexpectantly), ふと (casually, incidentally, suddenly, unexpectedly, unintentionally). (various references) | |
Korean | 우연하게 (fortuitously, unintentionally). (various references) | |
Manx | trooid taghyrt, dy tuittymagh, dy taghyrtagh (incidentally). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | accidentallyay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | acidentalmente (occasionally). (various references) | |
Romanian | accidental (accidental, adventitious, arbitrary, broken, casual, casually, chance, contingent, fortuitous, fortuitously, hurt, incidental, occasional, precarious, random, stray), întâmplãtor (accidental, adventitious, casual, chance, circumstantial, contingent, facultative, fortuitous, haphazard, incidentally, occasional, occurrent, odd, random, transient). (various references) | |
Russian | случайно (accidently, at random, by accident, by chance, coincidentally, fortuitously, haphazardly, incidentally, occasionally, perchance). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | slučajno (chance: by chance, fortuitously, haphazard, haphazardly, incidentally), neočekivano (suddenly, surprisingly, unexpectedly), nenamerno (unintentionally, unwittingly). (various references) | |
Spanish | accidentalmente (accidentalness, accidently, casually). (various references) | |
Swedish | tillfälligtvis (by accident, by chance, incidentally), händelsevis (as it happens, by accident, by chance). (various references) | |
Turkish | tesadüfen (by accident, by chance, by coincidence, casually, causelessly, fortuitously, haply, in passing, incidentally), rastlantı sonucu (by accident, fortuitous), kazara (by accident, by chance, inadvertently). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | випадково (adventitiously, by accident, by chance, casually, circumstantiality, fortuitously, haphazard, haphazardly, incidentally, occasionally, perchance, promiscuously), ненавмисно (carelessly, casually, inadvertently, unawares). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tình cờ (accidental, casual, chance, contingent, en passant, fortuitous, incidental, incidentally, passing), ngẫu nhiên (adventitious, casual, chance, contingent, fortuitous, haply, incidental, incidentally, perchance, promiscuous). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | casu, forte, fortuito, fortuitus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Accidentally" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: accedentally, acciddentally, accidentaly, accidentilly, accidentily, accidentlly, accidetally, acidentally. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "accidentally" (pronounced a'ksude"ntulē or a'ksude"nulē) |
| 9 | -s u d e" n t u l ē | coincidentally, incidentally. |
| 6 | -e" n t u l ē | continentally, developmentally, environmentally, experimentally, fundamentally, incrementally, mentally, monumentally, temperamentally. |
| 5 | -n t u l ē | jauntily, governmentally, horizontally, scantily. |
| 4 | -t u l ē | anecdotally, brutally, digitally, fatally, hastily, haughtily, heartily, mightily, mortally, nattily, subtly, testily, totally, vitally, wittily. |
| 3 | -u l ē | abysmally, abnormally, actually, additionally, agriculturally, anencephaly, angrily, annually, anomaly, arbitrarily, architecturally, artfully, artificially, beneficially, bilaterally, blissfully, bodily, botanically, broccoli, busily, carefully, casually, centrally, cerebrally, cheerfully, chronically, Cicely, circumstantially, civilly, clinically, clumsily, comically, commercially, conceptually, conditionally, confidentially, congressionally, conspiratorially, constitutionally, continually, contractually, contradictorily, conventionally, cordially, crazily, criminally, critically, culturally, customarily, cynically, delightfully, diagonally, diametrically, dismally, journalistically, joyfully, judicially, lawfully, lazily, diurnally, dorsally, dreadfully, dutifully, easily, editorially, educationally, eerily, electrically, electronically, emotionally, empirically, equally, essentially, eternally, ethically, eventually, exceptionally, exponentially, externally, extraordinarily, facsimile, factually, faithfully, family, fanatically, federally, finally, financially, fiscally, fitfully, florally, forcefully, formally, fractionally, frantically, frightfully, frugally, functionally, gainfully, generally, generationally, geographically, giggly, gleefully, globally, gloomily, gracefully, gradually, gratefully, gravelly, gravitationally, greedily, habitually, handily, happily, heavily, helpfully, hermetically, historically, homily, hopefully, hungrily, icily, illegally, impartially, individually, industrially, informally, initially, institutionally, intellectually, intentionally, internally, internationally, intrinsically, involuntarily, irrationally, legally, liberally, literally, locally, loyally, luckily, magically, magnetically, majestically, manfully, manually, marginally, masterfully, materially, mathematically, meaningfully, medicinally, mercifully, merrily, methodically, metrically, militarily, mineralogically, minimally, momentarily, monetarily, monopoly, morally, multifamily, multilaterally, municipally, mutually, nasally, nationally, naturally, necessarily, noisily, nominally, normally, novelly, nutritionally, occasionally, officially, oligopoly, operationally, optimistically, orally, orchestrally, ordinarily, originally, painfully, parenthetically, partially, pathetically, peacefully, perennially, periodically, peripherally, perpetually, personally, phenomenally, philosophically, physically, pitifully, playfully, politically, potentially, pragmatically, preferentially, preliminarily, presidentially, primarily, procedurally, professionally, proportionally, provincially, provisionally, purposefully, quintessentially, racially, radially, rationally, readily, regally, regionally, regretfully, respectfully, rightfully, ritualistically, romantically, royally, ruefully, sardonically, satisfactorily, scientifically, seasonally, secondarily, semiannually, sequentially, serenely, severally, sexually, skeptically, skillfully, sleepily, sloppily, socially, specially, speedily, spiritually, statistically, statutorily, steadily, steamily, structurally, subfamily, subliminally, substantially, successfully, summarily, supremely, surgically, symbolically, sympathetically, tactfully, tactically, tangentially, tastefully, tearfully, technically, technologically, temporally, temporarily, terminally, territorially, thankfully, theatrically, theoretically, therapeutically, thoughtfully, traditionally, Tripoli, truthfully, uncannily, unconditionally, unconstitutionally, uncritically, uneasily, unequivocally, unhappily, unilaterally, unintentionally, universally, unlawfully, unnaturally, unnecessarily, unofficially, unsuccessfully, unusually, usefully, usually, virtually, viscerally, visually, vocally, voluntarily, warily, wearily, wiggly, wilfully, willfully, wishfully, wistfully, wobbly, woefully, wonderfully, wrongfully. |
| 4 | -n u l ē | additionally, conditionally, congressionally, constitutionally, conventionally, criminally, diagonally, diurnally, educationally, emotionally, eternally, exceptionally, externally, finally, fractionally, functionally, generationally, gravitationally, institutionally, intentionally, internally, internationally, irrationally, marginally, medicinally, nationally, nominally, nutritionally, occasionally, operationally, originally, personally, phenomenally, professionally, proportionally, provisionally, rationally, regionally, seasonally, serenely, subliminally, terminally, traditionally, uncannily, unconditionally, unconstitutionally, unintentionally. |
| 3 | -u l ē | abysmally, abnormally, actually, agriculturally, anecdotally, anencephaly, angrily, annually, anomaly, arbitrarily, architecturally, artfully, artificially, beneficially, bilaterally, blissfully, bodily, botanically, broccoli, brutally, busily, carefully, casually, centrally, cerebrally, cheerfully, chronically, Cicely, circumstantially, civilly, clinically, clumsily, coincidentally, comically, commercially, conceptually, confidentially, conspiratorially, continentally, continually, contractually, contradictorily, cordially, crazily, critically, culturally, customarily, cynically, delightfully, developmentally, diametrically, digitally, dismally, jauntily, journalistically, joyfully, judicially, lawfully, lazily, dorsally, dreadfully, dutifully, easily, editorially, eerily, electrically, electronically, empirically, environmentally, equally, essentially, ethically, eventually, experimentally, exponentially, extraordinarily, facsimile, factually, faithfully, family, fanatically, fatally, federally, financially, fiscally, fitfully, florally, forcefully, formally, frantically, frightfully, frugally, fundamentally, gainfully, generally, geographically, giggly, gleefully, globally, gloomily, governmentally, gracefully, gradually, gratefully, gravelly, greedily, habitually, handily, happily, hastily, haughtily, heartily, heavily, helpfully, hermetically, historically, homily, hopefully, horizontally, hungrily, icily, illegally, impartially, incidentally, incrementally, individually, industrially, informally, initially, intellectually, intrinsically, involuntarily, legally, liberally, literally, locally, loyally, luckily, magically, magnetically, majestically, manfully, manually, masterfully, materially, mathematically, meaningfully, mentally, mercifully, merrily, methodically, metrically, mightily, militarily, mineralogically, minimally, momentarily, monetarily, monopoly, monumentally, morally, mortally, multifamily, multilaterally, municipally, mutually, nasally, nattily, naturally, necessarily, noisily, normally, novelly, officially, oligopoly, optimistically, orally, orchestrally, ordinarily, painfully, parenthetically, partially, pathetically, peacefully, perennially, periodically, peripherally, perpetually, philosophically, physically, pitifully, playfully, politically, potentially, pragmatically, preferentially, preliminarily, presidentially, primarily, procedurally, provincially, purposefully, quintessentially, racially, radially, readily, regally, regretfully, respectfully, rightfully, ritualistically, romantically, royally, ruefully, sardonically, satisfactorily, scantily, scientifically, secondarily, semiannually, sequentially, severally, sexually, skeptically, skillfully, sleepily, sloppily, socially, specially, speedily, spiritually, statistically, statutorily, steadily, steamily, structurally, subfamily, substantially, subtly, successfully, summarily, supremely, surgically, symbolically, sympathetically, tactfully, tactically, tangentially, tastefully, tearfully, technically, technologically, temperamentally, temporally, temporarily, territorially, testily, thankfully, theatrically, theoretically, therapeutically, thoughtfully, totally, Tripoli, truthfully, uncritically, uneasily, unequivocally, unhappily, unilaterally, universally, unlawfully, unnaturally, unnecessarily, unofficially, unsuccessfully, unusually, usefully, usually, virtually, viscerally, visually, vitally, vocally, voluntarily, warily, wearily, wiggly, wilfully, willfully, wishfully, wistfully, wittily, wobbly, woefully, wonderfully, wrongfully. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-c-d-e-i-l-l-n-t-y" | |
-2 letters: accidental, accidently. | |
-3 letters: antically, cadential, candlelit, catcalled, dalliance, dialectal, dilatancy. | |
-4 letters: accident, acetylic, acylated, allanite, alliance, analcite, analytic, ancillae, caecally, calcanei, calcined, calendal, calycate, calyceal, calycine, canaille, canalled, canticle, cliental, dactylic, delicacy, dentalia, dentally, diacetyl, laitance. | |
-5 letters: actinal, acylate, alcaide, alcalde, alcayde, alienly, allayed, anality, ancilla, antacid, anticly, cadency, calcine, calcite, calicle, callant, calycle. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-c-c-d-e-i-l-l-n-t-y" | |
+1 letter: anecdotically. | |
+3 letters: coeducationally. | |
+4 letters: cladogenetically, undemocratically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
