Coincidentally

How to spell coincidentally

14 letters · 6 syllables

6 of the 23 people asked to spell coincidentally in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

How to pronounce coincidentally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does coincidentally mean?

1. adverbIn a way that happens by chance at the same time as something else, without any planned connection.

Coincidentally in a sentence

• Coincidentally we had both booked the same flight without telling each other.

• The two reports reached the same conclusion entirely coincidentally.

Where does coincidentally come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This long adverb unwinds back to the Latin verb coincidere, meaning 'to fall upon together' or 'to occupy the same place'. It was assembled from the prefix co- (together), the prefix in- (on, upon), and the verb cadere (to fall), so the literal picture is of two things landing in the very same spot. Medieval Latin used coincidere in astronomy and geometry for points or events that exactly overlapped, and English took up 'coincide' in the seventeenth century with that same sense of falling together. From the verb came the noun 'coincidence' and the adjective 'coincidental', and finally the adverb 'coincidentally' for things that happen to occur at the same time by chance. The cadere root is surprisingly fertile, also giving us 'accident', 'cadence', and 'decay', all built on the idea of falling; remembering that hidden 'cid' from cadere helps fix the tricky middle of the word, where writers often drop or double letters.

How the word is built

• co- (together)
• in- (upon)
• cid (from cadere: to fall)
• -ent (adjective)
• -al (adjective)
• -ly (adverb)