Definition of accident

Definitions

accident

noun

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

- Shakespeare, Othello, I-iii:
- : Of moving accidents by flood and field.
- Trench:
- : Thou cam'st not to thy place by : It is the very place God meant for thee.
  1. (grammar) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, case.
  2. (military) An unplanned event that results in injury (including death) or occupational illness to person(s) and/or damage to property, exclusive of injury and/or damage caused by action of an enemy or hostile force.
  3. (context, Heraldry) A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms
  4. (logic) A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute
  5. (logic) A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness, softness.
  6. Any accidental property, fact, or relation; an accidental or nonessential; as, beauty is an .
- w:J. P. Mahaffy, J. P. Mahaffy:
- : This , as I call it, of Athens being situated some miles from the sea.
  1. (obsolete) unusual, Unusual appearance or effect - Chaucer
  2. casus; such unforeseen, extraordinary, extraneous interference as is out of the range of ordinary calculation.

Translations:

Dutch: ongeval^{(nl, ongeluk, n}}, t+, nl)}n

Etymology: French accident, from Latin accidens, -dentis, present participle of accidere to happen; ad + cadere to fall. See cadence, case.

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