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

And, incidentally, David knew what the music was going to be. —John Bleasdale, Variety, 24 June 2025

Chicago has no Bird rights on Horton-Tucker, incidentally, so if, for some wild reason, a bidding war erupts, the Bulls would have to use exception money to keep him. —John Hollinger, New York Times, 19 June 2025

Meester’s own origin story, incidentally, reads like a streaming drama in itself. —Seija Rankin, HollywoodReporter, 13 June 2025

One of the networks set to become part of Versant, incidentally, is CNBC. —Todd Spangler, Variety, 10 June 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