SINCE 1828
accidentally
adverb
ac·ci·dent·al·ly
| \ ˌak-sə-ˈdent-lē
, -ˈden-tᵊl-ē\
, -ˈden-tᵊl-ē\
Definition of accidentally
: 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]
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