Incidental
[ɪnsɪ'dent(ə)l] or ['ɪnsə'dɛntl]
Definition
(noun.) an item that is incidental.
(adj.) not of prime or central importance; 'nonessential to the integral meanings of poetry'- Pubs.MLA .
(adj.) (sometimes followed by `to') minor or casual or subordinate in significance or nature or occurring as a chance concomitant or consequence; 'incidental expenses'; 'the road will bring other incidental advantages'; 'extra duties incidental to the job'; 'labor problems incidental to a rapid expansion'; 'confusion incidental to a quick change' .
Edited by Karl--From WordNet
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Accidental, casual, fortuitous, contingent.[2]. Occasional, adventitious, extraneous, non-essential.
Editor: Sweeney
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Casual, occasional, appertinent, concomitant, concurrent, accidental,fortuitous
ANT:Systematic, regular, independent, disconnected, irrelative, essential,immanent, inherent, uniform, invariable
Edited by Flo
Examples
- Moreover, opportunity for making mistakes is an incidental requirement. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Sir John had his share--perhaps rather a large share--of the more harmless and amiable of the weaknesses incidental to humanity. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Touching glasses together in drinking, preparatory to a confidential talk, has come to be nicknamed hob-nobbing because of the equipment incidental to that action years ago. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- He made all manner of gestures while he spoke, as if in incidental imitation of some few of the great diversity of signals that he had never seen. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- A few words as to the domestic and personal side of Edison's life, to which many incidental references have already been made in these pages. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- It is an incidental result of differences in the reproductive systems of the parent-species. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Nor is this, the most striking phenomenon incidental to such a state. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- It gives an immediate heat in the kitchen for all culinary and domestic purposes, without the incidental objections of having to transport fuel and remove ashes. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- He preferred waiting for the incidental disclosure which events must soon bring about. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- In the former case the education is incidental; it is natural and important, but it is not the express reason of the association. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- They are ever content to build their lives on any incidental position that offers itself; whilst men would fain make a globe to suit them. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Krook's last lodger died there, observes Mr. Guppy in an incidental way. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The satire on existing governments is heightened by the simple and apparently incidental manner in which the last remark is introduced. Plato. The Republic.
- It is incidental, not primary. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Inputed by Jackson