occasional

occasional is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 1 sense. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.Produced by accident; as, the occasional origin of a thing. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne. Occasional cause (Metaph.), some circumstance preceding an effect which, without being the real cause, becomes the occasion of the action of the efficient cause; thus, the act of touching gunpowder with fire is the occasional, but not the efficient, cause of an explosion.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Related questions

Sources