incident

American  

[in-si-duhnt] / ˈɪn sɪ dənt /

noun

1. an individual occurrence or event.

   Synonyms:

   happening

2. a distinct piece of action, or an episode, as in a story or play.

3. something that occurs casually in connection with something else.

4. something appertaining or attaching to something else.

5. an occurrence of seemingly minor importance, especially involving nations or factions between which relations are strained and sensitive, that can lead to serious consequences, as an outbreak of hostilities or a war.

   border incident; international incident.

6. an embarrassing occurrence, especially of a social nature.

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adjective

1. likely or apt to happen (usually followed byto ).

2. naturally appertaining.

   hardships incident to the life of an explorer.

3. conjoined or attaching, especially as subordinate to a principal thing.

4. falling or striking on something, as light rays.

incident British  

/ ˈɪnsɪdənt /

noun

1. a distinct or definite occurrence; event

2. a minor, subsidiary, or related event or action

3. a relatively insignificant event that might have serious consequences, esp in international politics

4. a public disturbance

   the police had reports of an incident outside a pub

5. the occurrence of something interesting or exciting

   the trip was not without incident

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adjective

1. related (to) or dependent (on)

2. having a subsidiary or minor relationship (with)

3. (esp of a beam of light or particles) arriving at or striking a surface

   incident electrons

Related Words

See event.

Other Word Forms

• incidentless
  adjective
• nonincident
  noun

Etymology

Origin of incident

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin incident- (stem of incidēns “a happening,” noun use of present participle of Latin verb incidere “to fall upon, befall”), equivalent to Latin in- in- ² + -cid- (combining form of cad- “fall”) + -ent- -ent; see cadenza

Explanation

An incident refers to a particular happening, sometimes criminal but always noteworthy. If there was a food fight in the cafeteria, an e-mail might be sent to the parents of all students telling of the incident at school. The word incident is quite vague. It can refer to a humorous occurrence or a violent one, something that disturbed one's routine or something unusual that happened. If a child screams in a library, it's not that unusual, but if an adult does, that's an incident! As an adjective, incident is used in the field of physics to describe particles or radiation that fall on a surface. The incident light showed how dirty the windows were.

Example Sentences

At the moment, the prevailing opinion among many infectious disease specialists is no—at least not based on this incident alone.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 9, 2026

"The attack on the Hatzola ambulances caused considerable community concern and we have been working continuously to investigate this incident," Cdr Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Police London, said.

From BBC • May 8, 2026

A similar incident occurred the same day in New York City.

From Los Angeles Times • May 8, 2026

They added that the crew had passed pre-flight health checks, and that there were "no abnormalities" observed in radio communications and air traffic control before the incident.

From Barron's • May 8, 2026

"Though I did have an incident with a train recently. That should've brought me here."

From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda

Related Words

• circumstance
• episode
• event
• fact
• matter
• scene