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.
   1. By happenstance; in a particular case which has little to no bearing on, and little to no causal relation to, any other case.

      Antonyms: inevitably, certainly; systemically, systematically, essentially

      Near-synonyms: coincidentally, happenstantially, circumstantially, by chance, accidentally, semirandomly, randomly

   2. Not of central or critical importance.

      Coordinate term: anecdotally

      Near-synonym: in passing

      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).

   3. (speech act, conjunctive) Parenthetically, by the way.

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

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)