incidentally

English

Etymology

From incidental +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɪnsɪˈdɛntl̩i/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɪnsəˈdɛn(t)l̩i/

Adverb

incidentally (comparative more incidentally, superlative most incidentally)

1. (manner) In an incidental manner; not of central or critical importance.

   The book discussed the subject, but only incidentally.

   • 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).

2. By chance; in an unplanned way.
3. (speech act, conjunctive) Parenthetically, by the way.

   Incidentally, did you hear anything new from your brother yesterday?

Synonyms

• (parenthetically): apropos, as a matter of fact, by the way

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “in an incidental manner”): inevitably, certainly

Translations

in an incidental manner

• Albanian: kalimthi (sq)
• Arabic: صُدْفَةً (ar) (ṣudfatan)
• Armenian: իմիջիայլոց (imiǰiaylocʻ)
• Belarusian: выпадко́ва (vypadkóva)
• Bulgarian: случа́йно (bg) (slučájno)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 偶然 (zh) (ǒurán)

• Finnish: sivuten (fi), ohimennen (fi)
• French: incidemment (fr)
• German: nebenbei (de)
• Hungarian: érintőleg, érintőlegesen (hu), futólag (hu), mellékesen (hu)
• Italian: incidentalmente (it)
• Japanese: たまたま (ja) (tamatama), 偶然 (ja) (ぐうぜん, gūzen)
• Korean: 우연히 (ko) (uyeonhi)
• Polish: przy okazji (pl)
• Portuguese: incidentalmente
• Romanian: apropo (ro)
• Russian: случа́йно (ru) (slučájno)
• Scottish Gaelic: eadar dà sgeul
• Spanish: incidentalmente (es)
• Swedish: apropå (sv), i förbigående (sv)
• Turkish: sırası gelmişken (tr), bu arada (tr), bir ara (tr), lâf arasında
• Ukrainian: випадко́во (vypadkóvo)

without looking for something/somebody

• Albanian: kalimthi (sq)
• Dutch: toevalligerwijze (nl)
• Finnish: sattumoisin (fi), sattumalta (fi)
• German: zufällig (de), zufälligerweise (de)
• Hungarian: véletlenül (hu)
• Italian: casualmente (it)
• Portuguese: acidentalmente (pt), por acaso
• Spanish: casualmente (es)

by the way — see also by the way

• Arabic: عَلَى فِكْرَة (ʕalā fikra)
• Bulgarian: между́ дру́гото (meždú drúgoto)
• Esperanto: parenteze
• Finnish: muuten (fi), sattua (fi) (verb; "happen to")
• German: apropos (de), übrigens (de), im Übrigen (de), nebenbei gesagt
• Hungarian: egyébként (hu), amúgy (hu), mellesleg (hu)
• Irish: dála an scéil
• Italian: per inciso
• Polish: nawiasem mówiąc (pl), notabene (pl), na marginesie
• Portuguese: a propósito (pt), aliás (pt)
• Russian: кста́ти (ru) (kstáti), ме́жду про́чим (ru) (méždu próčim)
• Spanish: por cierto (es), a propósito (es)
• Ukrainian: до ре́чі (do réči), між і́ншим (miž ínšym)
• Vietnamese: à này
• Yiddish: אַגבֿ (agev)

See also

• coincidentally