incidentally
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From incidental + -ly.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌɪnsɪˈdɛntl̩i/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˌɪnsəˈdɛn(t)l̩i/
Adverb
[edit]incidentally (comparative more incidentally, superlative most incidentally)
- (manner) In an incidental manner; not of central or critical importance.
- The book discussed the subject, but only incidentally.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- Nor, will the tragic dramatist who would depict mortal indomitableness in its fullest sweep and direct swing, ever forget a hint, incidentally so important in his art, as the one now alluded to.
- 1951 April, D. S. Barrie, “British Railways: A Survey, 1948-1950”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 225:
- Not everybody welcomes standardisation as a principle, because it reduces variety (and, incidentally, tends to dispose of the quainter and more picturesque anomalies).
- By chance; in an unplanned way.
- (speech act, conjunctive) Parenthetically, by the way.
- Incidentally, did you hear anything new from your brother yesterday?
Synonyms
[edit]- (parenthetically): apropos, as a matter of fact, by the way
Antonyms
[edit]- (antonym(s) of “in an incidental manner”): inevitably, certainly
Translations
[edit]in an incidental manner
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without looking for something/somebody
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by the way — see also by the way
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See also
[edit]Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -ly (adverbial)
- English 5-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adverbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English conjunctive adverbs
- English manner adverbs
- English speech-act adverbs