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

In pet news, a cat named Mittens recently made three trips between Australia and New Zealand in 24 hours after being accidentally left behind on a plane. —Maureen O'Hare, CNN, 25 Jan. 2025

Warnings of racial profiling have also been issued by groups and experts, with concerns those with legal status or citizenship could be accidentally targeted. —Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 25 Jan. 2025

But things go more than awry when the ceremonies are accidentally double-booked into the same — and intimate — wedding venue on an Atlanta island. —Lily Ford, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Jan. 2025

Russian troops accidentally blew up the Tor earlier this month after mistaking it for a Ukrainian system. —David Axe, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above