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

For example, Grandy noted, a drone operator accidentally struck a Super Scooper plane during the Palisades fire, damaging the aircraft. —Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2026

Centered on Zhong Kui, the iconic demon-quelling deity of Chinese folklore, the family-friendly adventure follows a young human girl named Chujiu who accidentally enters the underworld. —Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 1 June 2026

Since November, 50 people had been hospitalized in California after accidentally picking and eating poisonous wild mushrooms, according to the California Department of Public Health. —Sacbee.com, 1 June 2026

Pagano accidentally kicked Ivar’s arm into Psycho Clown’s face. —Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026

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