accidentals

noun

A property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally.

(music) A sharp, flat, or natural, occurring not at the commencement of a piece of music as the signature, but before a particular note.

(painting, plural only) Those fortuitous effects produced by luminous rays falling on certain objects so that some parts stand forth in abnormal brightness and other parts are cast into a deep shadow.

Part of a text that has a mainly structural purpose, such as spelling, punctuation, or capitalization.

adjective

Happening by chance, or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things; by accident, unintentional.

Occurring sometimes, by chance; occasional.

Pertaining to accident and not essence; thus, inessential; incidental; secondary.

(philosophy) Nonessential to something's inherent nature (especially in Aristotelian thought).

(music) Adjusted by one or two semitones, in temporary departure from the key signature.

(geometry) Being a double point with two distinct tangent planes in 4-dimensional projective space.

Roots

cid-fall · Latin cado

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Words related to accidentals

Explore words related to accidentals — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include inadvertent, incidental, unintentional, unintended, nonessential, accidentally, fortuitous, adventitious. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.