accident

noun

• 1an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury:he had an accident at the factory if you are unable to work owing to accident or sickness [as modifier]:an accident investigator
• a crash involving road or other vehicles, typically one that causes serious damage or injury:four people were killed in a car accident
• informal used euphemistically to refer to an incidence of incontinence, typically by a child or an animal.

• 2an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause:the pregnancy was an accident it is no accident that my tale features a tragic romance
• the working of fortune; chance:my faith is an accident of birth, not a matter of principled commitment he came to Harvard largely through accident

• 3 Philosophy (in Aristotelian thought) a property of a thing that is not essential to its nature.