Adjacent Words

Accident definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AC'CIDENT, n. [L. accidens, falling, from ad and cado, to fall. See Case and Cadence. Class Gd.]
1. A coming or falling; an event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an event which proceeds from an unknown cause, or is an unusual effect of a known cause, and therefore not expected; chance; casualty; contingency.
2. That which takes place or begins to exist without an efficient intelligent cause and without design.
All of them, in his opinion, owe their being, to fate, accident, or the blind action of stupid matter.
3. In logic, a property, or quality of a being which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper. Also all qualities are called accidents, in opposition to substance, as sweetness, softness, and things not essential to a body, as clothes.
4. In grammar, something belonging to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, inflection.
5. In heraldry, a point or mark, not essential to a coat of arms.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an unfortunate mishap; especially one causing damage or injury
2: anything that happens suddenly or by chance without an apparent cause; "winning the lottery was a happy accident"; "the pregnancy was a stroke of bad luck"; "it was due to an accident or fortuity" [syn: accident, stroke, fortuity, chance event]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin accident-, accidens nonessential quality, chance, from present participle of accidere to happen, from ad- + cadere to fall — more at chance Date: 14th century 1. a. an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance b. lack of intention or necessity ; chance <met by accident rather than by design> 2. a. an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance b. an unexpected and medically important bodily event especially when injurious <a cerebrovascular accident> c. an unexpected happening causing loss or injury which is not due to any fault or misconduct on the part of the person injured but for which legal relief may be sought d. — used euphemistically to refer to an involuntary act or instance of urination or defecation 3. a nonessential property or quality of an entity or circumstance <the accident of nationality>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 an event that is without apparent cause, or is unexpected (their early arrival was just an accident). 2 an unfortunate event, esp. one causing physical harm or damage, brought about unintentionally. 3 occurrence of things by chance; the working of fortune (accident accounts for much in life). 4 colloq. an occurrence of involuntary urination or defecation. 5 an irregularity in structure. Phrases and idioms: accident-prone (of a person) subject to frequent accidents. by accident unintentionally. Etymology: ME f. OF f. LL accidens f. L accidere (as AC-, cadere fall)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Accident Ac"ci*dent, n. [F. accident, fr. L. accidens, -dentis, p. pr. of accidere to happen; ad + cadere to fall. See Cadence, Case.] 1. Literally, a befalling; an event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event; chance; contingency; often, an undesigned and unforeseen occurrence of an afflictive or unfortunate character; a casualty; a mishap; as, to die by an accident. Of moving accidents by flood and field. --Shak. Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident: It is the very place God meant for thee. --Trench. 2. (Gram.) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, case. 3. (Her.) A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms. 4. (Log.) (a) A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute. (b) A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness, softness. 5. Any accidental property, fact, or relation; an accidental or nonessential; as, beauty is an accident. This accident, as I call it, of Athens being situated some miles from the sea. --J. P. Mahaffy. 6. Unusual appearance or effect. [Obs.] --Chaucer. Note: Accident, in Law, is equivalent to casus, or such unforeseen, extraordinary, extraneous interference as is out of the range of ordinary calculation.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(accidents) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. An accident happens when a vehicle hits a person, an object, or another vehicle, causing injury or damage. She was involved in a serious car accident last week... Six passengers were killed in the accident. N-COUNT 2. If someone has an accident, something unpleasant happens to them that was not intended, sometimes causing injury or death. 5,000 people die every year because of accidents in the home... The police say the killing of the young man was an accident. N-COUNT 3. If something happens by accident, it happens completely by chance. She discovered the problem by accident... = chance N-VAR: usu by N

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Casualty, chance, fortuity, mischance, misadventure, calamity, mishap, miscarriage, misfortune, hap, hazard, contingency, unforeseen or fortuitous event. See contretemps. 2. Property, quality, modification, affection, mode, condition, state, change, alteration, attribute, contingent attribute, modalization.

Foolish Dictionary

A condition of affairs in which presence of mind is good, but absence of body better.

Moby Thesaurus

accessary, accessory, accidental, addendum, addition, adjunct, adventure, appendage, appurtenance, auxiliary, blow, blunder, calamity, casualty, cataclysm, catastrophe, chance, chance hit, collateral, collision, coming to be, contingency, contingent, contretemps, crack-up, crash, destiny, disaster, event, eventuality, eventuation, extra, fate, fluke, fortuity, fortune, freak accident, grief, hap, happening, happenstance, hazard, ill hap, incidence, incidental, inessential, kismet, long odds, long shot, luck, lucky shot, materialization, mere chance, misadventure, mischance, misfortune, mishap, mistake, nasty blow, nonessential, not-self, other, pileup, realization, secondary, serendipity, shipwreck, shock, smash, smashup, staggering blow, subsidiary, superaddition, supplement, tragedy, unessential, wreck