incidentally

adverb in·ci·den·tal·ly \ ˌin(t)-sə-ˈden-tᵊl-ē , especially for sense 2 -ˈdent-lē \

|Updated on: 3 Aug 2018

Examples: incidentally in a Sentence

Definition of incidentally

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

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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 of incidentally from the Web

And, not incidentally, the role that West, during his nearly 60 years in L.A., has played in three of those moves, all involving game-changing centers.

— jack mccallum, SI.com, "Go West, Big Man: The Logo on LeBron James and the Allure of Los Angeles," 11 July 2018
From the late 1930s or early ’40s onward, Neruda was not incidentally but essentially a Communist poet.

— benjamin kunkel, The New Republic, "The partisan world of Pablo Neruda," 2 July 2018
This phenomenon is, incidentally, also why the ocean appears blue.

— katherine j. wu, Smithsonian, "Why Bioluminescence Evolved to Be Red Light, and Blue," 26 June 2018
Bloomberg Anbang Conviction Wu Xiaohui, the former head of Chinese insurance giant Anbang (which incidentally owns the Waldorf Astoria in New York), has been jailed for 18 years over corruption and fraud.

— alan murray, Fortune, "AI, ZTE, RBS and BT: CEO Daily for May 10, 2018," 10 May 2018
And, importantly, Olivia Pope was not incidentally black but specifically black.

— daniel d'addario, Time, "Scandal Helped Define the Obama Era. And Maybe Predicted Trump's," 19 Apr. 2018
Since even before the inauguration, automakers have been pushing Donald Trump to roll back federal fuel economy and auto emission standards and, not incidentally, to revoke California's authority to set them for itself.

— michael hiltzik, latimes.com, "Trump's effort to revoke California's emission rules will be a disaster — for the auto industry," 2 Apr. 2018
After a Fairfield 7-on-7 camp in Toledo, which the Indians won incidentally, All and family made the journey further north to Ann Arbor for a visit.

— scott springer, Cincinnati.com, "What sold Fairfield tight end Erick All on Michigan?," 25 June 2018
Banker was last fired, incidentally, by Mike Riley.

— john canzano, OregonLive.com, "Canzano: Oregon State to report secondary NCAA violation, but what comes next counts more," 10 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'incidentally.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.