Incident

//ˈɪn.sɪ.dənt// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An event or occurrence. countable, uncountable

    "She could not recall the time of the incident."

  2. 2
    a single distinct event wordnet
  3. 3
    A (relatively minor) event that is incidental to, or related to others. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a public disturbance wordnet
  5. 5
    An event that causes or may cause an interruption or a crisis, such as a workplace illness or a software error. countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    An event that causes or may cause an interruption or a crisis, such as a workplace illness or a software error.; An event affecting an aircraft, usually a plane crash. countable, often, uncountable
Adjective
  1. 1
    Arising as the result of an event, inherent. not-comparable

    "No major hazards incident to this job."

  2. 2
    Falling on or striking a surface. not-comparable

    "The incident light illuminated the surface."

  3. 3
    Coming or happening accidentally; not in the usual course of things; not in connection with the main design; not according to expectation; casual; fortuitous. not-comparable

    "As the ordinary course of common affairs is disposed of by general laws, so likewise men's rarer incident necessities and utilities should be with special equity considered."

  4. 4
    Liable to happen; apt to occur; befalling; hence, naturally happening or appertaining. not-comparable

    "All chances incident to mans frail life."

  5. 5
    Dependent upon, or appertaining to, another thing, called the principal. not-comparable
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  1. 6
    In a relation of incidence not-comparable

    "The second inequality follows from the fact that all the edges incident with a fixed vertex separate [an arbitrary graph] G."

Adjective
  1. 1
    (sometimes followed by ‘to’) minor or casual or subordinate in significance or nature or occurring as a chance concomitant or consequence wordnet
  2. 2
    falling or striking of light rays on something wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
actionadventureaffairaffairaffiliatedagnate

Example

More examples

"This was third school shooting incident in six months."

Etymology

Recorded since 1412, from Middle French incident, from Latin incidens, the present active participle of incidō (“to happen, befall”), itself from in- (“on”) + -cidō, the combining form of cadō (“to fall”).

Related phrases

critical incident stress managementincident reportincident roomincident ticket systemnoodle incidentwithout incident

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.