Incidence
//ˈɪn.sɪ.dəns// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of something happening; occurrence. countable, uncountable
- 2 the striking of a light beam on a surface wordnet
- 3 The extent or the relative frequency of something happening. countable, uncountable
- 4 the relative frequency of occurrence of something wordnet
- 5 The manner of falling; bearing or onus, as of a tax that falls unequally. countable, uncountable
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 The striking of radiation or a projectile upon a surface. countable, uncountable
- 7 A measure of the rate of new occurrence of a given medical condition in a population within a specified period of time. countable, uncountable
- 8 The falling of a point on a line, or a line on a plane. countable, uncountable
- 9 The relation between an edge of a graph and one of the vertices it connects. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"According to this figure, the reflection angle equals the incidence angle."
Etymology
From Middle French incidence, from Medieval Latin incidentia (“a falling upon”), from Latin incidens, present participle of incidere (“to fall upon”), from in (“on”) + cadere (“to fall”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.