incident
Syllables: in·ci·dent/ˈɪnsɪdənt/
incident noun: an event or occurrence.
Noun
incident (countable and uncountable, plural incidents)
- An event or occurrence.
- She could not recall the time of the incident.
- It was an incident that he hoped to forget.
- A (relatively minor) event that is incidental to, or related to others.
- An event that causes or may cause an interruption or a crisis, such as a workplace illness or a software error.
- An event affecting an aircraft, usually a plane crash.
Adjective
incident (not comparable)
- Arising as the result of an event, inherent.
- No major hazards incident to this job.
- It is at this juncture that Toder launches into the familiar and troubling topic of monogamy versus non-monogamy. She outwardly expresses no preference for either option, considering each to hold certain consequences incident to it.1980 December 6, Cindy Rizzo, “Jewish, Lesbian, Feminist, Psychologist, Author—All of the above and more”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 20, page 9
- Falling on or striking a surface.
- The incident light illuminated the surface.
- Coming or happening accidentally; not in the usual course of things; not in connection with the main design; not according to expectation; casual; fortuitous.
- As the ordinary course of common affairs is disposed of by general laws, so likewise men's rarer incident necessities and utilities should be with special equity considered.[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
- Liable to happen; apt to occur; befalling; hence, naturally happening or appertaining.
- All chances incident to mans frail life.1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 43
- 17th century, Richard Milward, "Preface" to Seldeniana
the studies incident to his profession
- Dependent upon, or appertaining to, another thing, called the principal.
- In a relation of incidence
- The second inequality follows from the fact that all the edges incident with a fixed vertex separate [an arbitrary graph] G.2005, Reinhard Diestel, Graph Theory - Electronic Edition, 3rd edition, page 12
- If there is only one ideal point U and only one ideal line u, then either (i) every point in u is incident with a line in U, or else (ii) no point in u is incident with any line of U.1968, Peter Dembowski, Finite Geometries, page 315
incident meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
incident in Hindi
- event causing interruption or crisis
- दुर्घटना durghaṭnā
- event or occurrence
- घटना ghaṭnā
incident in Tamil
- சம்பவம், நேர்வு, நிகழ்ச்சி
incident in Urdu
- incident, occurrence
- گھٹنا ghaṭnā, وارد vārid
- incident, event
- سانحہ sāniha
- an incident, accident, calamity
- جھٹکا jhaṭkā
incident in Bengali
- event causing interruption or crisis
- অকু oku, অকুআত okuat
- event or occurrence
- অকু oku, অকুআত okuat
More languagesFewer languages
- incident in Malayalam
- സംഭവം sambhavaṁ
- incident in Kannada
- ಘಟನೆ, ಪ್ರಸಂಗ, ಸಂಗತಿ
- incident in Punjabi
- ਵਕੂਆ vakūā, ਘਟਨਾ ghaṭnā
- incident in Sanskrit
- घटना ghaṭanā
- incident in Assamese
- ঘটনা ghotona
- incident in Arabic
- حَادِث ḥādiṯ, حَادِثَة ḥādiṯa, وَاقِعَة wāqiʕa
- incident in Indonesian
- insiden, kejadian, peristiwa
- incident in Persian
- حادثه hâdese, واقعه vâqe'e
- incident in Thai
- อุบัติเหตุ ù-bàt-dtì-hèet, กรณี gɔɔ-rá-nii, อุบัติการณ์ ù-bàt-dtì-gaan
- incident in Vietnamese
- sự kiện
Examples of incident in a sentence
- The suspect was released without further incident.
- Where else can you hear the announcement: "The train at Platform 4 is ten minutes late due to an incident in another country," as I did once at the Swiss station of Spiez?2025 October 15, Vitali Vitaliev, “The recipe for Swiss bliss”, in RAIL, number 1046, page 68:
Synonyms of incident
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of incident
| plural | incidents |
|---|
Origin of incident
Recorded since 1412, from Middle French incident, from Latin incidens, the present active participle of incidō (“to happen, befall”), itself from in- (“on”) + -cidō, the combining form of cadō (“to fall”).
Words formed from incident
Phrases with incident
Questions about incident
- What does incident mean?
- Incident means an event or occurrence.
- What is incident in Hindi?
- Incident in Hindi is दुर्घटना (durghaṭnā), घटना (ghaṭnā). See Incident meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use incident in a sentence?
- The suspect was released without further incident.
- What part of speech is incident?
- Incident can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce incident?
- Incident is pronounced /ˈɪnsɪdənt/.
- What is the plural of incident?
- The plural of incident is incidents.
Words near incident in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incident (page history and authors); incident (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); جھٹکا (Urdu) (page history and authors); സംഭവം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); incident (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ঘটনা (Assamese) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-incident.ogg.
Cite this entry: “incident.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incident. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.