accident

accident

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of accident in English

English Online Dictionary. What means accident‎? What does accident mean?

English

Etymology

First attested in the late 14th century. From Middle English accident, from Old French accident, from Latin accidēns, present active participle of accidō (“happen”); from ad (“to”) + cadō (“fall”). See cadence, case. In the sense “unintended pregnancy”, first attested in 1932.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈæksɪdənt/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈæksədənt/, /-dɛnt/
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA(key): /ˈæksədɪnt/
  • Hyphenation: ac‧cid‧ent

Noun

accident (countable and uncountable, plural accidents)

  2. An unexpected event with negative consequences occurring without the intention of the one suffering the consequences, and (in the strict sense) not directly caused by humans.
    Coordinate term: act of God
  3. (transport) A collision or crash of a vehicle, aircraft, or other form of transportation that causes damage to the transportation involved; and sometimes injury or death to the transportation's occupants or bystanders in close proximity. (but see Usage notes)
  4. Any chance event.
  6. (uncountable) Chance; random chance.
    • c.1861-1863, Richard Chevenix Trench, in 1888, Letters and memorials, Volume 1,
      Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident, / It is the very place God meant for thee; […]
  8. Any property, fact, or relation that is the result of chance or is nonessential or nonsubstantive.
    Synonym: accidens
    • 14thC, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale in The Canterbury Tales,
      These cookes how they stamp, and strain, and grind, / And turne substance into accident, / To fulfill all thy likerous talent!
    1. (grammar) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, such as gender, number, or case.
      • a 1799, John Parkhurst, A Hebrew and English lexicon without points, page 25
        An adjective, so called because adjectitious, or added to a substantive, denotes some quality or accident of the substantive to which it is joined […]
  10. (euphemistic) An instance of incontinence.
    1. Urine or feces excreted due to incontinence.
  12. (euphemistic) An unintended pregnancy.
    2. (derogatory or humorous) A person born from an unintended pregnancy.
  13. (geology) An irregular surface feature with no apparent cause.
  14. (geology) A sudden discontinuity of ground such as fault of great thickness, bed or lentil of unstable ground.
  16. (heraldry) A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms.

Usage notes

Risk management and risk mitigation experts (such as actuaries, systems engineers, and others) generally do not approve of calling motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) "accidents", because they advisedly reserve that term for things not directly caused by human recklessness or negligence. Because it is predictably obvious (and directly causal) that distracted driving (e.g., texting, IMing/DMing, videogaming, or intoxication while driving) produces MVCs, those MVCs are not "accidents". Nonetheless, among the general public, MVCs are quite often called "accidents" rather than "crashes" or "collisions", not only by idiomatic inertia but also because connotatively, it steers clear of broaching the topic of blame assignment, whereas a phrase like "he crashed" connotes blame.

Synonyms

  • (unexpected event with negative consequences): mishap
  • (unexpected event that takes place without foresight or expectation): befalling, chance, contingency, casualty; See also Thesaurus:accident
  • (chance): fortune, luck; see also Thesaurus:luck
  • (law): casus

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

  • circumstance, coincidence, happenstance

Adjective

accident (not comparable)

  1. (transport) Designating any form of transportation involved in an accident.

See also

References

  • Elisabetta Lonati, "Allas, the shorte throte, the tendre mouth": the sins of the mouth in The Canterbury Tales, in Thou sittest at another boke, volume 3 (2008, ISSN 1974-0603), page 253: "the cooks "turnen substance into accident" (Pd 539), transform the raw material, its natural essence, into the outward aspect by which it is known."
  • Barbara Fass Leavy, To Blight With Plague: Studies in a Literary Theme (1993), page 47:
    To turn substance into accident is to give external form to what previously was unformed, to transform spirit into matter, to reduce eternal truths to their ephemeral physical manifestations.

Further reading

  • “accident”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
  • “accident”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
  • “accident”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin accidentem, present active participle of accidō (“happen”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (Central) [ək.siˈðen]
  • IPA(key): (Balearic) [ək.siˈðent]
  • IPA(key): (Valencia) [ak.siˈðent]

Noun

accident m (plural accidents)

  1. accident (a chance occurrence)
  2. (grammar) accident
  3. (music) accidental
  4. (logic) accident
  5. (transport) accident
  6. (geography) feature

Derived terms

  • accidentar
  • accidentogen

Related terms

  • accidental

Further reading

  • “accident” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
  • “accident”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
  • “accident” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
  • “accident” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch accident, from Middle French accident.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌɑk.siˈdɛnt/
  • Hyphenation: ac‧ci‧dent
  • Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

accident n (plural accidenten, diminutive accidentje n)

  1. (philosophy, theology) accidental property
  2. (now Belgium) accident

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin accidentem.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ak.si.dɑ̃/

Noun

accident m (plural accidents)

  1. accident

Usage notes

  • Not to be confused with incident.

Derived terms

  • accident de décompression
  • accident de parcours
  • accident de travail/accident du travail
  • accident vasculaire cérébral
  • accidentel
  • accidenter
  • par accident

Further reading

  • “accident”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Etymology 1

Form of the verb accidō (“I fall down upon”).

Verb

accident

  1. third-person plural future active indicative of accidō

Etymology 2

Form of the verb accīdō (“I cut down”).

Verb

accīdent

  1. third-person plural future active indicative of accīdō

Middle French

Noun

accident m (plural accidens)

  1. accident (unexpected outcome)

Old French

Noun

accident oblique singular, m (oblique plural accidenz or accidentz, nominative singular accidenz or accidentz, nominative plural accident)

  1. accident (chance occurrence)
  2. symptom (medical)

Descendants

  • English: accident
  • French: accident

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French accident.

Noun

accident n (plural accidente)

  1. accident

Declension

Scots

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈaksɪdɛnt]

Noun

accident (plural accidents)

  1. An accident; a coincidental occurrence or event.

References

  • Eagle, Andy, editor (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

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This article based on an article on Wiktionary. The list of authors can be seen in the page history there. The original work has been modified. This article is distributed under the terms of this license.