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

Fentanyl is dangerous for many reasons, one of which is that it is often laced inside other drugs, with many recreational drug users accidentally consuming the other substances without knowing there's any fentanyl inside them. —Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025

If a player scores a penalty kick but accidentally touches the ball twice, they will be allowed to retake it. —Cerys Jones, New York Times, 2 Sep. 2025

The majority of shark bites happen accidentally, with the predators mistaking people for their preferred meal -- smaller fish. —David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 2 Sep. 2025

Anyone who’s accidentally purchased an especially stiff chair to flank a set of coffee tables knows first hand accounts are much better for assessing an accent chair’s prowess than staged imagery. —Kate McGregor, Architectural Digest, 2 Sep. 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