Coincide

How to spell coincide

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce coincide

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does coincide mean?

1. verbTo happen at the same time as something else, or to be in agreement.

Coincide in a sentence

• The conference will coincide with the start of the school holidays.

• Their travel plans happened to coincide with ours, so we shared a taxi.

Where does coincide come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Coincide comes from the Latin coincidere, formed from co- meaning 'together', in- meaning 'upon', and cadere, the verb 'to fall'. The literal sense was therefore 'to fall together upon the same point', and medieval Latin writers used it in geometry and astronomy for shapes or positions that occupied exactly the same place. English adopted it in the seventeenth century, first in that technical sense of figures occupying the same space, and then more broadly for events that happen at the same time or opinions that agree. The same cadere root, meaning 'to fall', is hidden inside a surprising family of English words, including accident (something that falls upon you), incident, and cascade. Knowing that the middle is the falling root cid helps explain the single c before -ide, and the co- plus in- opening explains the otherwise tricky 'oi' vowel pairing at the start.

How the word is built

• co- (together)
• in- (in/upon)
• cid (from Latin cadere: to fall); literally 'to fall together upon'