incident
Americannoun
-
an individual occurrence or event.
- Synonyms:
- happening
-
a distinct piece of action, or an episode, as in a story or play.
-
something that occurs casually in connection with something else.
-
something appertaining or attaching to something else.
-
an occurrence of seemingly minor importance, especially involving nations or factions between which relations are strained and sensitive, that can lead to serious consequences, as an outbreak of hostilities or a war.
border incident; international incident.
-
an embarrassing occurrence, especially of a social nature.
adjective
-
likely or apt to happen (usually followed byto ).
-
naturally appertaining.
hardships incident to the life of an explorer.
-
conjoined or attaching, especially as subordinate to a principal thing.
-
falling or striking on something, as light rays.
noun
-
a distinct or definite occurrence; event
-
a minor, subsidiary, or related event or action
-
a relatively insignificant event that might have serious consequences, esp in international politics
-
a public disturbance
the police had reports of an incident outside a pub
-
the occurrence of something interesting or exciting
the trip was not without incident
adjective
-
related (to) or dependent (on)
-
having a subsidiary or minor relationship (with)
-
(esp of a beam of light or particles) arriving at or striking a surface
incident electrons
Related Words
See event.
Other Word Forms
- incidentless adjective
- nonincident noun
Etymology
Origin of incident
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin incident- (stem of incidēns “a happening,” noun use of present participle of Latin verb incidere “to fall upon, befall”), equivalent to Latin in- in- 2 + -cid- (combining form of cad- “fall”) + -ent- -ent; cadenza
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The incident happened about half a block south of a perimeter that had been marked off for the Marathon Burger location’s grand opening, sending bystanders scrambling, according to ABC7.
From Los Angeles Times
"The Saudi army has raised its readiness to full alert," the source close to the military told AFP after the incident.
From Barron's
A Police Scotland statement said the incident was not being treated as terror-related.
From BBC
The level of any damage wasn’t clear, but the incident led to the shutdown of several operational units at the refinery, though petroleum supply wasn’t affected.
Dubai International Airport - the world's busiest by passenger traffic - was damaged in an "incident" that injured four staff, according to authorities.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
