Incidental

How to spell incidental

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce incidental

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does incidental mean?

1. adjectiveOccurring as a minor or secondary part of something more important; happening by chance alongside it.

Incidental in a sentence

• The budget covered travel, lodging, and various incidental costs.

• The documentary mentioned her early career only as an incidental detail.

Where does incidental come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb cadere, which literally meant 'to fall'. From it came incidere, 'to fall upon' or 'to happen', the same root that gave us 'incident' and 'accident'. Medieval Latin formed the adjective incidentalis to describe something that happens by chance or comes along with a main event rather than being the point of it. English adopted it in the early 1600s, keeping that sense of a minor thing that falls alongside the main matter. The same falling image survives in relatives like 'cadence' and 'decadence', and the buried 'cid' from cadere is why the middle of the word is spelled with that easily forgotten i rather than the e many writers expect.

How the word is built

• in- (on, upon)
• cid (from cadere: to fall)
• -ent (adjective-forming)
• -al (adjective suffix)