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accidental

ac·ci·den·tal

accidental

 
 
pronunciation:
aek sih den tl
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part of speech: adjective
definition: happening by chance; not planned or expected.
Their meeting was completely accidental.
synonyms:
casual, chance
antonyms:
deliberate, intentional, planned, willful
similar words:
random, stray
derivation: accidentally (adv.)
Word Builder: accidental +
  • accidentally:
    by accident.
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Word Parts  About this feature
The word accidental contains the following parts:
ac- Latin prefix that means to, toward
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The prefix ac- occurs in Latin loanwords. It is an assimilated form of ad- used before Latin roots beginning with hard or soft "c" or "q." See ad-.
cad, cas, cid2 Latin root that means to fall
-ant, -ent Latin adjective- and noun-forming suffix that means (in adjectives) doing the action denoted by the verb root; (in nouns) one who or that which does the action denoted by the verb root.
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The suffix -ant , -ent forms adjectives and, to a much lesser extent, nouns from Latin verb stems such as fid in confident and stud in student . This suffix is the equivalent in Latin of the "-ing" inflection in English. Many adjectives ending in -ant , -ent have a corresponding noun ending in -ance, -ence, -ancy, -ency.