Meaning & use
incidental
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Happening as a small extra part of something bigger, and not the main point.
Grammar: Often used before a noun, or followed by to: incidental detail, or incidental to the plot.
Patterns
- incidental to something
The fee for photos is incidental to the main cost of the tour.
Some incidental details in the report were wrong.
Her success was incidental to the team's larger goal.
adjectivebefore a noun
Happening by chance as a side effect of something else.
Grammar: Usually before a noun: an incidental discovery.
Patterns
- incidental finding
The doctor made an incidental finding while checking his knee.
An incidental benefit of cycling to work is saving money.
Birds are an incidental pleasure on this walk.
adjectivebefore a nounbusiness
Describing small extra costs that arise alongside a main expense.
Grammar: Used before words like expenses or costs.
Patterns
- incidental expenses
The hotel charges a deposit for incidental expenses such as snacks.
Budget for incidental costs like parking and tolls.
Travel insurance will not cover incidental charges.
Common combinations
- incidental expenses
- Keep your receipts for all incidental expenses.
- incidental music
- The film uses incidental music to build tension.
- incidental detail
- The lawyer dismissed it as an incidental detail.
- purely incidental
- Any similarity to real people is purely incidental.
- incidental to
- The noise was incidental to the construction work.
Synonyms and how they differ
- minor
- Minor simply means small or unimportant, while incidental also says the thing comes along with something larger.
- secondary
- Secondary means less important than a main thing, but it need not arise by accident like incidental.
- chance
- Chance stresses luck, whereas incidental stresses being a side element.
- accompanying
- Accompanying just means coming along with, but does not carry the sense of being unimportant.
Opposites
Word family
- incident noun
- an event, often an unpleasant one
- incidentally adverb
- by the way; as a side remark
- incidence noun
- how often something happens
- incidentals noun
- small extra items or costs
Commonly confused: incidental or accidental?
incidental vs accidental
Accidental means happening by mistake or chance, while incidental means a minor side part of something bigger.
Practice
The trip cost $900, plus about $60 in ___ expenses such as snacks and bus fares.
Choose one answer.
Incidental expenses are small extra costs beside a main one. Accidental means unplanned or by mistake, and central and primary mean main.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “incidental”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.