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

While wild game roadkill are usually allowed to be picked up and taken home to eat in many parts of the country, some animals accidentally killed by a motor vehicle first require state notification, a license and other steps. —Stuart Dyos, USA Today, 29 Oct. 2025

His pro partner, Daniella Karagach, accidentally broke Efron's nose during training. —Bebe Hodges, Cincinnati Enquirer, 29 Oct. 2025

After Hedda burns Lovborg’s manuscript and Lovborg is shot by a pistol accidentally going off in her own hand (a gun gifted to her by Hedda, one of General Gabler’s ornate firearms), Tesman and Thea team up to attempt to rewrite Lovborg’s manuscript by hand. —Rory Doherty, Time, 29 Oct. 2025

One of their junior devs accidentally gives public access to a storage bucket while testing an internal tool. —Daniel Fusch, Ascend Agency, 28 Oct. 2025

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