How to use incidental in a sentence
21 example sentences · adjective, noun
Incidental means loosely associated; of limited relevance except indirectly; only accidentally related. Example: “That character, though colorful, is incidental to the overall plot.”
Examples of incidental by meaning
adjectiveLoosely associated; of limited relevance except indirectly; only accidentally related.
- That character, though colorful, is incidental to the overall plot.
adjectiveExisting tangentially, being a byproduct, a tangent, or a likely consequence.
- Injuries are incidental to contact sports: they're going to happen.
nounMinor items, not further defined. Incidental expense.
- She's costing us a lot in incidentals.
More sentences with incidental
- His incidental expenses are high, but he gets the job done.From the entry incidental expense
- The incidental music helped give the programme its evocative atmosphere.From the entry incidental music
- She does not regard her ear-worms as anything other than an incidental irritant in her life.2012, Nick Coleman, chapter 22, in The Train in the Night: A Story of Music and Loss, Berkeley, Calif.: Counterpoint, published 2013…. From the entry earworm
- Most of them are incidental and have little bearing on the story; others are remarkably important.2011, William R. Hugo, Studying the Life of Saint Francis of Assisi. From the entry fill-in
- An incidental pleasure is his witty mastery of the scare quote and the square bracket.2006 September 6, “Where Hairsplitting Can Become High Drama”, in New York Sun. From the entry scare quote
- It is only incidental that things put on the encyclopedia are true.2006 August 1, Rose Melinis, “Wikipedia: Cyberbullying”, in soc.culture.filipino (Usenet), archived from the original on 26 Oct 2025. From the entry Wackipedia
- Anterior commissure microwebs have been reported as an incidental finding in surgical patients with nodules.1994, The Laryngoscope - Volume 104, Issue 7, page 1369. From the entry microweb
- It ignores the dangers of unthriftness and extravagance, incidental to too facile credit.1984, T. Paranjothi, Committees and Commissions on Co-operation, page 21. From the entry unthriftness
- Soon the novelty of all-talking pictures wore off and incidental music began to make a comeback.1969, Toby Haggith, “Face the Music”, in Film Quarterly, volume 22, number 4, page 11. From the entry production value
- A variety of nonalimentary modifications of teeth have been identified in past populations, some of which are intentional and some incidental.2019, Madeleine L. Mant, Alyson Jaagumägi Holland, Bioarchaeology of Marginalized People, page 40. From the entry nonalimentary
- Jasperization of chert was concomitant with hard ore formation, but it was incidental rather than necessary for ore localization.1948, Robert Myres Crump, Origin of hard iron ores of the Marquette district, page 52. From the entry jasperization
- As new discoveries were made incidental difficulties connected with the filling of shells occupied the concentered study of the manufacturers.1917, Frank Dilnot, chapter 11, in Lloyd George: The Man and His Story, New York: Harper, page 163. From the entry concentre
- The stakes are low and the story beats are incidental amid the rush of largely mild visual gags and verbal sallies like “Blood Island!2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits”, in The Onion AV Club. From the entry sally
- Pity about the ubiquitous foam machine, but the surviving clip shows Oak and Quill as bed-wettingly terrifying (despite the terrible incidental music).2000, Mark Campbell, “42) Fury From The Deep (6 episodes)”, in Doctor Who: A Completely and Utterly Unauthorised Guide (Pocket Essentials…. From the entry bed-wettingly
- Paratenic or incidental hosts that ingest larvated eggs maintain somatic larvae in their tissues ( 3 ) that are infective to predators of the infected paratenic host. .2022, Jorge Morales-Montor, Víctor Hugo Del Río-Araiza, Romel Hernandéz-Bello, Parasitic Helminths and Zoonoses: From Basic to Applied…. From the entry larvated
- The plot as Titus Oates described it to the Privy Council was something of a shaggy dog story, long on digressions and incidental details, but short on hard facts.2016, Anna Keay, chapter 11, in The Last Royal Rebel, London: Bloomsbury. From the entry shaggy dog story
- The Authority may do anything that it considers is calculated to facilitate, or is incidental or conducive to, the carrying out of any of its functions.2004, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Section 1(3)”, in Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004ᵂⁱᵏⁱˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ, page 1. From the entry calculate
- Washington sided with Hamilton and the result was that an incidental or "implied" power was created that exceeded in size and scope the very enumerated power it was to implement!1974, New Hampshire Bar Journal - Volume 16, page 291. From the entry enumerated
Meaning of incidental
- adjective Loosely associated; of limited relevance except indirectly; only accidentally related.
- adjective Existing tangentially, being a byproduct, a tangent, or a likely consequence.
- adjective Occurring by chance.
Questions about incidental in a sentence
- How do you use incidental in a sentence?
- Incidental is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “That character, though colorful, is incidental to the overall plot.”
- What is a short sentence with incidental?
- “She's costing us a lot in incidentals.”
- What does incidental mean?
- Incidental means loosely associated; of limited relevance except indirectly; only accidentally related.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incidental (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use incidental in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/incidental. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.