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

During the chaotic aftermath, a police officer accidentally shot himself in the leg. —Jordan King, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 May 2025

North Myrtle Beach police also responded to the shooting Sunday night, and one of their officers accidentally shot himself in the leg while arriving at the scene, the department said on Facebook. —Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 27 May 2025

Drake’s personal hotline was ringing off the hook this week after his phone number was accidentally leaked during a livestream — and the 6 God took it all in stride. —Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 27 May 2025

Or were the capsules accidentally contaminated at a Johnson & Johnson plant? —Addie Morfoot, Variety, 26 May 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