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

With barely any gas in the tank, his truck accidentally rolled backward into the Secret Service car behind him. —Madison E. Goldberg, People.com, 28 Mar. 2025

An enlarged liver can accidentally get injured during the operation, Ren-Fielding explained. —Stephanie Brown, Verywell Health, 28 Mar. 2025

Published March 24 | Read More | Fossil hunter accidentally uncovers 4,000-year-old ax in Poland. —Stories By Real-Time News Team, With Ai Summarization, Miami Herald, 28 Mar. 2025

Unlike pepper spray or mace, there’s no risk of accidentally blinding yourself, and if the threat turns out to be a non-threat, no harm is done. —Simon Hill, Wired News, 28 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for accidentally

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