Incidental
adjective
Happening as a minor part or result of something else.
Getting wet was an incidental result of our picnic in the park.
Often appears as...
- incidental expenses
- incidental music
noun
Something that happens as a minor part or result of something else.
The incidental of the experiment was a surprising discovery.
Often appears as...
- included in the incidentals
- pay for the incidentals
adjective
Occurring or liable to occur in fortuitous or subordinate conjunction with something else.
Incidental damages, which were not the direct result of the breach, were also claimed in the lawsuit.
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
adjective
Happening as a minor part or result of something else.
Getting wet was an incidental result of our picnic in the park.
Often appears as...
- incidental expenses
- incidental music
noun
Something that happens as a minor part or result of something else.
The incidental of the experiment was a surprising discovery.
Often appears as...
- included in the incidentals
- pay for the incidentals
adjective
Occurring or liable to occur in fortuitous or subordinate conjunction with something else.
Incidental damages, which were not the direct result of the breach, were also claimed in the lawsuit.
Usage tips
Formal
Technical
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Unexpected Result
Occurs by chance and isn't planned within the main activity.
Finding the old coin was an incidental benefit of cleaning the garage.
Pro Tip 2/3Not Central
Not the main focus, but related to the main event or activity.
Our discussion led to an incidental debate on related topics.
Pro Tip 3/3Unintended Occurrence
Not intentionally included or planned; happens by the side.
The new client we met was an incidental occurrence during our business trip.
Pro Tip 1/3Unexpected Result
Occurs by chance and isn't planned within the main activity.
Finding the old coin was an incidental benefit of cleaning the garage.
Pro Tip 2/3Not Central
Not the main focus, but related to the main event or activity.
Our discussion led to an incidental debate on related topics.
Pro Tip 3/3Unintended Occurrence
Not intentionally included or planned; happens by the side.
The new client we met was an incidental occurrence during our business trip.
Pro Tip 1/3Unexpected Result
Occurs by chance and isn't planned within the main activity.
Finding the old coin was an incidental benefit of cleaning the garage.
Pro Tip 2/3Not Central
Not the main focus, but related to the main event or activity.
Our discussion led to an incidental debate on related topics.
Pro Tip 3/3Unintended Occurrence
Not intentionally included or planned; happens by the side.
The new client we met was an incidental occurrence during our business trip.
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Video examples
A kinder, gentler...
which is incidentally why none of you should ever go to a school reunion, because there is no stronger reference point than people one was at school with. The problem of modern society is it turns the whole world into a school. Everybody's wearing jeans, everybody's the same. And yet, they're not. So there's a spirit of equality combined with deep inequality,
Video examples
Why the universe seems...
through three dimensions catching insects must be pretty similar to the world model that any flying bird -- a day-flying bird like a swallow -- needs to perform the same kind of tasks. The fact that the bat uses echoes in pitch darkness to input the current variables to its model, while the swallow uses light, is incidental.
Video examples
Science can answer moral...
And hundreds of thousands of children, incidentally, are subjected to this every year. The locations of these enlightened districts, I think, will fail to surprise you. We're not talking about Connecticut. And the rationale for this behavior is explicitly religious. The creator of the universe himself
Video examples
Sir Martin Rees: Earth...
we won't be able to understand the very beginning of our universe because when our universe was itself the size of an atom, quantum effects could shake everything. And so we need a theory that unifies the very large and the very small, which we don't yet have. One idea, incidentally --
Video examples
A brief history of...
shared a utilitarian purpose with other cultures around the world, some of whose languages incidentally have no word for art. So how do we define what we call art? Generally speaking, what we're talking about here is work that visually communicates meaning beyond language,
Video examples
The big-beaked,...
Conversely, a fish rapidly leaving a location can provide an early warning that a threat is approaching. By simply trying to stay alive, these reef fish can incidentally help their neighbors survive— and more of these fish means less seaweed.
Video examples
The mathematics of love...
their heart rates, their blood pressure, basically everything apart from whether or not the wife was actually always right, which incidentally she totally is. But what Gottman and his team found was that one of the most important predictors
Video examples
Magic Without Lies PIPE...
above. Now, he can see into closed rooms. He can see into his flat fellows. This unprecedented three-dimensional view of his two-dimensional universe is devastating. Traveling to another dimension provides as an incidental
Video examples
How to make your writing...
They're usually filled with funny types, or archetypes. The know-it-all, the loveable loser, the bad boss, the neurotic, the airhead. Incidentally, these are all stock characters found in Commedia Dell'Arte,
Video examples
The real meaning of soul...
used to be thought of as souls rather than the body was incidental and the soul was all that mattered there wasn't a soul in sight someone might say of an empty lifeless Street and all souls were lost at sea
Video examples
A kinder, gentler...
which is incidentally why none of you should ever go to a school reunion, because there is no stronger reference point than people one was at school with. The problem of modern society is it turns the whole world into a school. Everybody's wearing jeans, everybody's the same. And yet, they're not. So there's a spirit of equality combined with deep inequality,
Video examples
Why the universe seems...
through three dimensions catching insects must be pretty similar to the world model that any flying bird -- a day-flying bird like a swallow -- needs to perform the same kind of tasks. The fact that the bat uses echoes in pitch darkness to input the current variables to its model, while the swallow uses light, is incidental.
Video examples
Science can answer moral...
And hundreds of thousands of children, incidentally, are subjected to this every year. The locations of these enlightened districts, I think, will fail to surprise you. We're not talking about Connecticut. And the rationale for this behavior is explicitly religious. The creator of the universe himself
Video examples
Sir Martin Rees: Earth...
we won't be able to understand the very beginning of our universe because when our universe was itself the size of an atom, quantum effects could shake everything. And so we need a theory that unifies the very large and the very small, which we don't yet have. One idea, incidentally --
Video examples
A brief history of...
shared a utilitarian purpose with other cultures around the world, some of whose languages incidentally have no word for art. So how do we define what we call art? Generally speaking, what we're talking about here is work that visually communicates meaning beyond language,
Video examples
The big-beaked,...
Conversely, a fish rapidly leaving a location can provide an early warning that a threat is approaching. By simply trying to stay alive, these reef fish can incidentally help their neighbors survive— and more of these fish means less seaweed.
Video examples
The mathematics of love...
their heart rates, their blood pressure, basically everything apart from whether or not the wife was actually always right, which incidentally she totally is. But what Gottman and his team found was that one of the most important predictors
Video examples
Magic Without Lies PIPE...
above. Now, he can see into closed rooms. He can see into his flat fellows. This unprecedented three-dimensional view of his two-dimensional universe is devastating. Traveling to another dimension provides as an incidental
Video examples
How to make your writing...
They're usually filled with funny types, or archetypes. The know-it-all, the loveable loser, the bad boss, the neurotic, the airhead. Incidentally, these are all stock characters found in Commedia Dell'Arte,
Video examples
The real meaning of soul...
used to be thought of as souls rather than the body was incidental and the soul was all that mattered there wasn't a soul in sight someone might say of an empty lifeless Street and all souls were lost at sea
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Troy Aikman
American Athlete
It is relatively easy... to determine whether or not a blow to a quarterback was deemed excessive or incidental. So I'm discouraged that there have been a number of games that are influenced - not that the outcomes are in question - but a number of games influenced based on the protection of the quarterback.
Quote examples
Steve Erickson
American Novelist
The instant that movies became described as character driven was the instant when characters stopped mattering in movies. In other words, the birth of the notion of the character-driven movie coincided with the birth of movies in which characters were incidental to the very activities in which they engaged.
Quote examples
Vermin Supreme
American Artist
I think the important thing to understand about the free pony program is, of course, it is an absolutely free pony program, uh, there may be some incidental costs involved with pony social security or universal pony health care or the haystamp program so ponies won't starve in the streets.
Quote examples
Shaun Tan
Australian Artist
The detail adds an element of unexpected something. All fiction is false; what makes it convincing is that it runs alongside the truth. The real world has lots of incidental details, so a painting also has to have that element of imperfection and irregularity, those incidental details.
Quote examples
Nathaniel Hawthorne
American Novelist
Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.
Quote examples
David Bowie
English Musician
I do some kind of work, whether writing or painting or recording, on a daily basis. And it's so essential that when I'm involved in the actual process, my so-called 'real life' becomes almost incidental, which becomes worrying.
Quote examples
Alex Guarnaschelli
American Chef
I'm interested in food and sharing my passion with a community of like-minded people. All of the celebrity stuff that comes along with that is just an incidental byproduct of being able to do what I love for a living.
Quote examples
Rutger Bregman
Dutch Historian
It's important to make a distinction between the news and journalism. The news is about recent, incidental and sensational events. It's mostly about exceptions.
Quote examples
Peace Pilgrim
American Activist
Make food a very incidental part of your life by filling your life so full of meaningful things that you'll hardly have time to think about food.
Quote examples
M. J. Rose
American Author
Power Play' is a morality tale for our post-Enron world and - not incidentally - wildly entertaining. Nothing wrong with that.
Quote examples
Troy Aikman
American Athlete
It is relatively easy... to determine whether or not a blow to a quarterback was deemed excessive or incidental. So I'm discouraged that there have been a number of games that are influenced - not that the outcomes are in question - but a number of games influenced based on the protection of the quarterback.
Quote examples
Steve Erickson
American Novelist
The instant that movies became described as character driven was the instant when characters stopped mattering in movies. In other words, the birth of the notion of the character-driven movie coincided with the birth of movies in which characters were incidental to the very activities in which they engaged.
Quote examples
Vermin Supreme
American Artist
I think the important thing to understand about the free pony program is, of course, it is an absolutely free pony program, uh, there may be some incidental costs involved with pony social security or universal pony health care or the haystamp program so ponies won't starve in the streets.
Quote examples
Shaun Tan
Australian Artist
The detail adds an element of unexpected something. All fiction is false; what makes it convincing is that it runs alongside the truth. The real world has lots of incidental details, so a painting also has to have that element of imperfection and irregularity, those incidental details.
Quote examples
Nathaniel Hawthorne
American Novelist
Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.
Quote examples
David Bowie
English Musician
I do some kind of work, whether writing or painting or recording, on a daily basis. And it's so essential that when I'm involved in the actual process, my so-called 'real life' becomes almost incidental, which becomes worrying.
Quote examples
Alex Guarnaschelli
American Chef
I'm interested in food and sharing my passion with a community of like-minded people. All of the celebrity stuff that comes along with that is just an incidental byproduct of being able to do what I love for a living.
Quote examples
Rutger Bregman
Dutch Historian
It's important to make a distinction between the news and journalism. The news is about recent, incidental and sensational events. It's mostly about exceptions.
Quote examples
Peace Pilgrim
American Activist
Make food a very incidental part of your life by filling your life so full of meaningful things that you'll hardly have time to think about food.
Quote examples
M. J. Rose
American Author
Power Play' is a morality tale for our post-Enron world and - not incidentally - wildly entertaining. Nothing wrong with that.
Example 1 of 10
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