accident

Syllables: ac·cid·entUK/ˈæk.sɪ.dənt//ˈæk.sə.dənt/

accident noun: 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.

Image: Huhu Uet, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

accident (countable and uncountable, plural accidents)

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.
- to die by an accident such as an act of God
- Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances, / Of moving accidents by flood and field[…]c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
1. casus; such unforeseen, extraordinary, extraneous interference as is out of the range of ordinary calculation.
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)
- There was a huge accident on I5 involving 15 automobiles.
- My insurance went up after the second accident in three months.
Any chance event.
- He also objects to the idea of women arising by an accident of nature, preferring the notion that they came about as a 'result of some strong mental impression', and so 'the sex of the progeny would have been settled by the decision of the progenitor'.2008, Celia Deane-Drummond, The Ethics of Nature, page 206
(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; […]
- And so with his writing, which he proudly said was a perfect counterpart of his life. Accident played a major part in both.1991 Autumn, Robert M. Adams, “Montaigne”, in American Scholar, volume 60, number 4, page 589
Synonyms:

fortune
Any property, fact, or relation that is the result of chance or is nonessential or nonsubstantive.
- Beauty is an accident.
- Lexical gaps are called accidental because their existence is by accident; it is not essential.
Synonyms:

accidens
1. A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, such as gender, number, or case.
  - An adjective, so called because adjectitious, or added to a substantive, denotes some quality or accident of the substantive to which it is joined […]a 1799, John Parkhurst, A Hebrew and English lexicon without points, page 25
(euphemistic) An instance of incontinence.
- We weren’t there long when Karin asked about our dog. When we told her Chris was in the car, she insisted we bring him up to the apartment. I rejected her offer and said he might have an accident on the carpet and I didn’t want to worry about it.2009, Marcia Stedron, My Roller Coaster Life as an Army Wife, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 56
1. (euphemistic) Urine or feces excreted due to incontinence.
(euphemistic) An unintended pregnancy.
1. (derogatory, euphemistic, humorous) A person born from an unintended pregnancy.
  - Taylor was our sweet little accident, and we're so glad!
(obsolete) An injury.
- Accident is a word which too commonly suffers a like perversion. It is used as if it meant a wound.[1880, Richard Grant White, Every-day English
- This little manual contains simple directions for the preliminary treatment of accidents to all parts of the body and of such diseases as persons are suddenly seized with.1880, New York World, quotee, “Accidents and Emergencies (advertisement)”, in School and Industrial Hygiene
An irregular surface feature with no apparent cause.
A sudden discontinuity of ground such as fault of great thickness, bed or lentil of unstable ground.
A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms.
Synonym of accidental.

Synonyms:

accidental

Adjective

accident (not comparable)

Designating any form of transportation involved in an accident.
- The NTSB report revealed that the accident airplane was a Cessna 172.

Proper noun capitalized: Accident

Accident

A town in Garrett County, Maryland, United States.

accident meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

accident in Hindi

unexpected event with negative consequences: दुर्घटना durghaṭnā, हादसा hādsā
transport: unintended event that causes damage: दुर्घटना durghaṭnā
chance event: संयोग sãyog
chance: संयोग sãyog

accident in Tamil

நேர்ச்சி, தன்னேர்ச்சி, எதிர்பாராத நிகழ்ச்சி, கருதிச் செய்யப்படாத செயல், எதிர்பாராத இடையூறு

accident in Marathi

unexpected event with negative consequences: अपघात apghāt

accident in Urdu

unexpected event with negative consequences: حادِثَہ hādisa, ناگَہانی nāgahānī

More languagesFewer languages

accident in Bengali: দূর্ঘটনা durghoṭona
accident in Telugu: దైవికము daivikamu
accident in Malayalam: അപകടം apakaṭaṁ, ആകസ്മികം ākasmikaṁ
accident in Kannada: ಕೆಟ್ಟಾಗುಹ, ತಾಗುಬಾಗು, ಅವಗಡ, ತೆಗಹು
accident in Gujarati: દુર્ઘટના durghaṭnā
accident in Sinhala: අනතුර anatura
accident in Pashto: پېښه pex̌a, حادثه hādesa
accident in Tagalog: aksidente, disgrasya, sakuna
accident in Arabic: حَادِث ḥādiṯ, حَادِثَة ḥādiṯa, صُدْفَة ṣudfa, صِدْفَة ṣidfa
accident in Malay: kemalangan
accident in Indonesian: kecelakaan, kesempatan, kebetulan
accident in Persian: عرض 'araz
accident in Thai: อุบัติเหตุ ù-bàt-dtì-hèet, รถชน rót chon, อุบัติเหตุรถชน ù-bàt-dtì-hèet rót chon
accident in Vietnamese: sự cố, tai nạn
accident in Myanmar: မတော်တဆမှု ma.tauta.hca.hmu.

Examples of accident in a sentence

Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident.2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist:
Five days after the accident on September 4, firefighters responded to reports of a fire near Castaic Lake.2026 July 18, Nicholas Muhoro, “Bryce Laspisa Vanished Near Castaic Lake After Spending 13 Hours Parked on a California Highway”, in Skip...
This accident, as I call it, of Athens being situated some miles from the sea, which is rather the consequence of its being a very ancient site,[…]1883, J. P. Mahaffy, Social life in Greece from Homer to Menander:
If they went through their growth-crisis in other faiths and other countries, although the essence of the change would be the same[…], its accidents would be different.1902, William James, “Lecture IX: Conversion”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y....

All 40 example sentences with accident

Synonyms of accident

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

fortuity

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of accident

Forms of accident

plural	accidents

Plural of accident: accidents

Origin of accident

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.

Unknown.

Phrases with accident

Questions about accident

What does accident mean?: Accident means 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.
What is accident in Hindi?: Accident in Hindi is दुर्घटना (durghaṭnā), हादसा (hādsā), संयोग (sãyog). See Accident meaning in Hindi.
How do you use accident in a sentence?: Surprisingly, this analysis revealed that acute exposure to solvent vapors at concentrations below those associated with long-term effects appears to increase the risk of a fatal automobile accident.
What part of speech is accident?: Accident can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce accident?: Accident is pronounced /ˈæk.sɪ.dənt/ (UK).
What is the plural of accident?: The plural of accident is accidents.

Words near accident in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: accident (page history and authors); Accident (page history and authors); accident (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); దైవికము (Telugu) (page history and authors); accident (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); દુર્ઘટના (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-accident.ogg.

Cite this entry: “accident.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/accident. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.