Incident

How to spell incident

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce incident

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does incident mean?

1. nounA distinct event or occurrence, often one that is unusual, minor, or causes concern.
2. adjectiveFalling or striking upon a surface, as a ray of light or a beam of radiation does.

Incident in a sentence

• noun

  The security guard filed a report about the incident in the car park.

• adjective

  The incident light hits the mirror and reflects at an equal angle.

• noun

  The flight landed safely without a single incident during the storm.

• adjective

  Engineers measured the incident radiation striking the solar panel.

Where does incident come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb incidere, meaning 'to fall upon' or 'to happen', which was built from the prefix in- ('on' or 'upon') and the verb cadere ('to fall'). The present participle incidens described something that 'falls in' or befalls a situation, and from that came the medieval Latin noun incidens for an occurrence or event. English took the word in around the 1400s, by way of Old French, first in the sense of a happening connected to something larger. The same cadere root sits inside a whole family of relatives, including 'accident', 'coincide', 'cascade' and 'decadent', all of which share the underlying idea of falling. The single c and the -ent ending are the spelling traps, and remembering the link to 'accident' (also single c) and to 'falling' helps anchor both.

How the word is built

• in- (on, upon)
• cid (from Latin cadere: to fall)
• -ent (noun/adjective suffix)