accidentally

adverb

ac·​ci·​dent·​al·​ly ˌak-sə-ˈdent-lē  -ˈden-tᵊl-ē 

: in an accidental or unintended manner : by accident

I accidentally deleted the file.

The lock prevents the gate from opening accidentally.

Six lionfish were accidentally released from a home aquarium in Biscayne Bay, Fla., during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

—Alcestis Cooky Oberg

The Olympic test was thrown out after the test lab accidentally destroyed the backup sample … that's required to confirm a positive result.

—Christie Aschwanden

He bumped into her accidentally on purpose. [=he bumped into her intentionally but he tried to make it appear to be an accident]

Examples of accidentally in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Some social media users wrote that the crash occurred when the driver intended to put his car in reverse, but accidentally left it in drive mode. —Ilana Arougheti, Kansas City Star, 9 May 2024

Chrissy Teigen accidentally started rumors about her own absence from the 2024 Met Gala. —Bailey Richards, Peoplemag, 7 May 2024

In another instance in 2018 that occurred after the audit, a voter was accidentally unregistered when an employee was trying to resolve a duplication in registration records. —Harriet Blair Rowan, The Mercury News, 6 May 2024

Butterfly Effect is one of the genre’s strangest and most desolate visions, a 14-track collection of soundscapes and improvisations that seem to have been created almost accidentally, all of it coated in a layer of corrosion as if soaked in battery acid prior to release. —Daniel Bromfield, SPIN, 6 May 2024

Photograph: Getty Images The White House has issued new rules aimed at companies that manufacture synthetic DNA after years of warnings that a pathogen made with mail-order genetic material could accidentally or intentionally spark the next pandemic. —Emily Mullin, WIRED, 6 May 2024

Perhaps not accidentally, two of F1’s three stops in the United States, where NASCAR and IndyCar fans are used to more overtaking (passing) than an F1 grand prix contains, are Sprint weekends. —David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 4 May 2024

The teen wasn't struck by the bullets, but in several other shootings across the country, people accidentally in the wrong place have been injured or killed when they were shot at. —Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY, 3 May 2024

One officer accidentally discharged his gun inside a Columbia University administration building while clearing out protesters camped inside, authorities said. —Julie Watson, Fortune, 3 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing accidentally

• accidentally on purpose