What does "accident" mean?
Accident: (Gram.) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, case.
Additional senses
- 2.(Her.) A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms.
- 3.(Log.) (a) A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute. (b) A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness, softness.
- 4.Any accidental property, fact, or relation; an accidental or nonessential; as, beauty is an accident. This accident, as I call it, of Athens being situated some miles from the sea. J. P. Mahaffy.
- 5.Unusual appearance or effect. [Obs.] Chaucer. Note: Accident, in Law, is equivalent to casus, or such unforeseen, extraordinary, extraneous interference as is out of the range of ordinary calculation.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00