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

And he was also accidentally shot during the town’s annual Beach Ball fete. —Erin Jensen, USA Today, 12 Nov. 2025

The Bitwarden survey found that 42% of parents with children between 3 and 5 years old said their child had accidentally shared personal information online. —Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 12 Nov. 2025

In the accompanying music video, directed by Christian Breslauer, Perry appears in a kitchen and accidentally drops her ring down the drain. —Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 10 Nov. 2025

In video footage from the event posted on social media, Clarkson can be seen briefly pausing her show to make sure that the plunging neckline of her sparkly jumpsuit hadn’t accidentally become a little too revealing along the way. —Emlyn Travis, Entertainment Weekly, 10 Nov. 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