incidentally

adverb

in·​ci·​den·​tal·​ly ˌin(t)-sə-ˈden-tᵊl-ē 

 especially for sense 2  -ˈdent-lē

1

: in an incidental manner : not intentionally

the arrant nonsense of some of his statements is incidentally hilarious

—John Lahr

2

: by way of interjection or digression : by the way

fortunate in having a good teacher … —still living, incidentally

—John Fischer

Synonyms

• in passing
• by the way
• by the bye
• by the by

Examples of incidentally in a Sentence

Not incidentally, the market slump was followed by widespread layoffs.

incidentally, have you seen the new building they're putting up?

Recent Examples on the Web

This night, incidentally, was the date of his mother's anniversary. —Piet Levy, jsonline.com, 16 July 2025

The rules around grand jury secrecy shouldn’t be broken and care must be taken about revealing the identities of victims and besmirching the reputations of people mentioned incidentally in the vast investigative materials. —The Editors, National Review, 16 July 2025

The horses, incidentally, are proof of the theater of this: Real police don’t use horses to make arrests. —Jim Newton, Mercury News, 12 July 2025

The Lululemon slides are cool and comfortable, which, incidentally, also happen to be my only two goals this summer. —Chaunie Brusie, Parents, 9 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1665, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for incidentally

• accidentally
• detrimentally
• fundamentally
• governmentally
• incrementally
• instrumentally
• sentimentally
• temperamentally
• coincidentally
• environmentally
• experimentally
• mentally

Kids Definition

incidentally

adverb

in·​ci·​den·​tal·​ly ˌin(t)-sə-ˈdent-ᵊl-ē 

 especially for sense 2  -ˈdent-lē

1

: in an incidental manner

discusses the problem only incidentally

2

: apart from that : by the way

a one-room school—still standing, incidentally—which was painted red