accident Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun an unfortunate mishap; especially one causing damage or injury
noun anything that happens suddenly or by chance without an apparent cause
fortuity; stroke; chance event.
- winning the lottery was a happy accident
- the pregnancy was a stroke of bad luck
- it was due to an accident or fortuity

F. accident, fr. L. accidens, -dentis, p. pr. of accidere to happen; ad + cadere to fall. See Cadence, Case.

Literally, a befalling; an event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event; chance; contingency; often, an undesigned and unforeseen occurrence of an afflictive or unfortunate character; a casualty; a mishap; as, to die by an accident.
Of moving accidents by flood and field. Shak.

Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident: It is the very place God meant for thee. Trench.
(Gram.) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, case.
(Her.) A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms.
(Log.) (a) A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute. (b) A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness, softness.
Any accidental property, fact, or relation; an accidental or nonessential; as, beauty is an accident.
This accident, as I call it, of Athens being situated some miles from the sea. J. P. Mahaffy.
Unusual appearance or effect. Obs. Chaucer. ✍ Accident, in Law, is equivalent to casus, or such unforeseen, extraordinary, extraneous interference as is out of the range of ordinary calculation.