Accidentally

How to spell accidentally

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce accidentally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accidentally mean?

1. adverbIn a way that happens by chance or by mistake, without intention.

Accidentally in a sentence

• She accidentally deleted the spreadsheet before saving a copy.

• He accidentally left his umbrella on the train this morning.

Where does accidentally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb accidere, meaning 'to fall to' or 'to happen', which was built from the prefix ad- ('to, toward') and the verb cadere ('to fall'). The idea was that an event 'fell upon' someone unexpectedly, so an accident was literally something that befell a person rather than something they planned. From the participle form accidens the noun 'accident' and the adjective 'accidental' developed, entering English through Old French around the 1300s and 1400s. The adverb 'accidentally' was then formed in English by stacking the native -ly ending onto the existing adjective 'accidental', which is exactly why the spelling keeps the full -al- before -ly. The same cadere root survives in relatives such as 'cadence', 'decay', and 'coincidence', all carrying the underlying sense of falling. Remembering that the word is accidental plus ly, and not accident plus aly, is the surest way to keep the troublesome middle in place.

How the word is built

• ac- (from ad-: to, toward)
• cid (from cadere: to fall)
• -ent (forming an adjective)
• -al (adjectival)
• -ly (adverb)