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

For one, Jennifer Lopez has been jet-setting around Europe for her Up All Night: Live Tour, and during her stop in Warsaw, Poland, on July 25, the pop star accidentally revealed her underwear after her skirt accidentally snapped off and fell to the floor. —Michelle Lee, People.com, 7 Aug. 2025

There’s some inevitable drug humor, as Will’s former coworkers accidentally leave a tab of acid in a champagne flute. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 6 Aug. 2025

She was introduced to the game at age 5 accidentally. —Omkar Khandekar, NPR, 5 Aug. 2025

He was tackled by Crosby, who then accidentally rolled on the back Johnson’s leg. —Scott Thompson, FOXNews.com, 4 Aug. 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