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

Clark, obviously focused on the game, may not have seen Harris’ hand up in that moment and accidentally just walked past her. —Ryan Gaydos Outkick, FOXNews.com, 8 June 2026

The incident was the third time in five months that city officials accidentally sent out a Denver-wide safety alert. —Seth Klamann, Denver Post, 8 June 2026

Jack Black accidentally revealed that there are already plans for a third movie, in addition to plans for a Donkey Kong Country film in 2028. —Alejandra Gularte, Vulture, 8 June 2026

Another episode, directed by Andrew DeYoung, sees Tom accidentally ingest potent hallucinogenic mushrooms, with Rhys nailing absurdist humor and a haunting flashback. —Emma Fraser, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 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