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 promoting the band's T-Mobile Super Bowl commercial, Howie Dorough accidentally spilled the beans on the new dates to USA TODAY. —Ralphie Aversa, USA Today, 17 Feb. 2026

The person appeared to have accidentally drowned, a police spokesperson said, and no foul play is suspected. —Emily Holshouser, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 17 Feb. 2026

He was accidentally hit by cars in four separate incidents, one of which left him severely injured and hospitalized. —Everett Eaton, jsonline.com, 16 Feb. 2026

Captain Auston Matthews made the pass to Guentzel, and Zach Werenski — who accidentally knocked the puck into his own net on Denmark’s first goal credited to Nick Olesen — had the secondary assist to get some retribution. —Stephen Whyno, Chicago Tribune, 15 Feb. 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