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

Police have confirmed that the victim is an AutoZone employee who was accidentally shot by a coworker handling a firearm inside the store. — Cbs News Atlanta Digital Team, CBS News, 11 Aug. 2026

The ongoing war in Ukraine, following the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, has led to multiple incidents in which drones either accidentally or intentionally strayed across the borders of European countries such as Romania. — Jeremy Hsu, ArsTechnica, 11 Aug. 2026

Continue reading … BACKFIRE POLITICS – Kamala Harris accidentally becomes the SAVE America Act's best saleswoman. — FOXNews.com, 11 Aug. 2026

Any host can accidentally put their foot in their mouth when interviewing people. — Rebecca Ford, Vanity Fair, 11 Aug. 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