Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Language: French
Origin: Latin accidens 'additional quality, chance', from accidere 'to happen', from ad- 'to' + cadere 'to fall'

accident

 noun
     
ac‧ci‧dent S1 W2
1

by accident

in a way that is not planned or intended [≠ on purpose, deliberately]:
I met her quite by accident. (=completely by accident)
The discovery was made almost by accident.
The pilot, whether by accident or design (=whether it was planned or not planned), made the plane do a sharp turn.
2 [countable] a crash involving cars, trains, planes etc
road/car/traffic etc accident
Over 70,000 people are killed or seriously injured every year in road accidents.
fatal/serious/tragic etc accident
a fatal accident on the freeway
The accident happened at the junction of Forest Road and Pine Walk.
accident
3 [countable] a situation in which someone is injured or something is damaged without anyone intending them to be:
Ken had an accident at work and had to go to hospital.
I'm sorry about breaking the vase - it was an accident (=I did not intend to do it).
4 [uncountable and countable] something that happens without anyone planning or intending it:
My third baby was an accident.
It is no accident that men fill most of the top jobs in nursing, while women remain on the lower grades.
an accident of birth/geography/history etc (=an event or situation caused by chance)
5

accidents (will) happen

spoken used to tell someone who has broken something that they should not worry that it has happened
6

an accident waiting to happen

used about a situation in which an accident is likely to happen because no one is trying to prevent it:
The boats are being left to drift; it's an accident waiting to happen.
WORD FOCUS: accident WORD FOCUS: accident
similar words: crash, wreck American English, pile-up, collision, disaster, catastrophe
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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