Accidence: Definition and part of speech

Accidence

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.

n. Unusual appearance or effect.
n. Literally, a befalling; an event that takes place without one’s foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event; chance; contingency; often, an undesigned and unforeseen occurrence of an afflictive or unfortunate character; a casualty; a mishap; as, to die by an accident.
n. A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, case.
n. A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms.
n. A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute.
n. A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness, softness.
n. Any accidental property, fact, or relation; an accidental or nonessential; as, beauty is an accident.

n. A sharp, flat, or natural, occurring not at the commencement of a piece of music as the signature, but before a particular note.
a. Happening by chance, or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things; casual; fortuitous; as, an accidental visit.
a. Nonessential; not necessary belonging; incidental; as, are accidental to a play.
n. A property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally.
n. 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.