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

The team’s social media department was preparing the stream in advance and accidentally published the link. — Devon Henderson, New York Times, 22 July 2026

Moss recalled a bass fishing trip last fall when his son accidentally hooked Brooke in the shoulder while fish were busting on the surface in front of them. — Amber Harding Outkick, FOXNews.com, 20 July 2026

Varela said a customer service representative refused to help fix an issue with his daughter’s ticket, which had incorrectly listed her last name as her middle name due to an error his wife accidentally made when booking the flight a few months ago. — Thom Jensen, NBC news, 20 July 2026

Then, in 2016, a friend of Hannah’s accidentally became pregnant, and Melissa gave Steve a familiar look. — Charles Bethea, New Yorker, 20 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for accidentally

• detrimentally
• fundamentally
• governmentally
• incidentally
• incrementally
• instrumentally
• sentimentally
• temperamentally
• coincidentally
• environmentally
• experimentally
• mentally