喜樂美語
  1. 1a/ˌæksəˈdentl/意外的；偶然的

    Happening by chance, with nobody planning it or meaning it to happen. It is used most often about something unwanted, such as damage, but also about a lucky discovery or a meeting that nobody arranged.

    accidental 就是 accident（意外）的形容詞，可以想成「沒有人打算讓它發生」——事情自己撞上來的，不是誰安排的。所以它可以指壞事（accidental damage 意外造成的損壞），也可以指好事或純粹的巧合（an accidental discovery 偶然的發現）；重點不在好壞，而在「不是故意的、不是計畫好的」。它跟 deliberate（故意的）、planned（計畫好的）正好相反。

    示範例句 · Example

    Both teams turning up in yellow shirts was completely accidental — nobody checked before the game.

    中文翻譯兩隊都穿黃色球衣出現是完全意外的——比賽前沒有人確認過。

    常見搭配

    • accidental damage

      意外造成的損壞

      harm to something that happens by accident, not on purpose

      The insurance covers accidental damage to your bike while you are away.

    • purely / completely accidental

      純屬巧合；完全是意外

      happening only by chance, with nothing planned at all

      The two songs sound alike, but the writers say it was purely accidental.

    • an accidental discovery

      偶然的發現

      something useful that you find when you are not looking for it

      Many accidental discoveries in science began with a mistake in the lab.

    • an accidental hero

      意外成為英雄的人

      someone who becomes a hero by chance, not by planning to

      Hana became an accidental hero when she found the lost dog on her way home.

    • any similarity is purely accidental

      如有雷同，純屬巧合

      used to say that a story is not about real people

      The film ends with a line saying any similarity to real people is purely accidental.

    用法接近

    accidentaccidentallyby accidentby mistakecoincidence

    意思相反

    deliberateintentionalplannedon purpose

core核心畫面

From the word’s history

From Middle English accidental, via Anglo-Norman and Middle French, from Late Latin accidentālis; accident + -al.

源自晚期拉丁文 accidentālis，等於 accident 加 -al。

Wiktionary

It happened, but nobody put it there. No plan, no intention behind it — the result came from chance. Most often used when the result is damage or harm nobody wanted, but it works just as well for a lucky find or a meeting nobody arranged.

可以想成事情確實發生了，但背後沒有人安排：沒有計畫、沒有那個意思，是碰巧湊成的。最常見的用法是描述沒人想要的結果——accidental damage（意外造成的損壞）、an accidental death（意外死亡）；但只要「沒人刻意安排」這一點成立，好事也可以用，像 an accidental discovery（無意間的發現）。關鍵不在結果好壞，而在有沒有那隻「有意」的手。

容易混在一起的字在訂閱裡。容易混在一起的字需要訂閱帳號。

同家族的字

用法接近

accidentaccidentallyby accidentby mistakecoincidence

意思相反

deliberateintentionalplannedon purpose

原始詞典資料10 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

accidentaladj/ˌæk.sɪˈdɛn.tl̩/

  • 1

    Pertaining to accident and not essence; thus, inessential; incidental; secondary.

    • It would be absurd to say that Marxism was predestined to become the ideology of the self-glorifying Russian bureaucracy. Nevertheless, it contained essential features, as opposed to accidental or secondary ones, that made it adaptable to this purpose.
  • 2

    human-sciencesphilosophysciencesPertaining to accident and not essence; thus, inessential; incidental; secondary.

  • 3

    entertainmentlifestylemusicAdjusted by one or two semitones, in temporary departure from the key signature.

  • 4

    Occurring sometimes, by chance; occasional.

  • 5

    Happening by chance, or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things; by accident, unintentional.

    • The discovery was purely accidental.
    • He was killed by an accidental gunshot.
  • 6

    geometrymathematicssciencesBeing a double point with two distinct tangent planes in 4-dimensional projective space.

accidentalnoun/ˌæk.sɪˈdɛn.tl̩/

  • 1

    A property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally.

    • He conceived it just that accidentals ... should sink with the substance of the accusation.
  • 2

    Those fortuitous effects produced by luminous rays falling on certain objects so that some parts stand forth in abnormal brightness and other parts are cast into a deep shadow.

  • 3

    entertainmentlifestylemusicA sharp, flat, or natural, occurring not at the commencement of a piece of music as the signature, but before a particular note.

  • 4

    Part of a text that has a mainly structural purpose, such as spelling, punctuation, or capitalization.

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。