incidental.

Occurring as a minor accompaniment rather than as the main purpose or concern.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• incidental costs
• incidental to
• incidental benefit

On the page

Improved street lighting was an incidental benefit of the transport project.

The personal quarrel is incidental to the legal issue before the court.

The grant covers travel but not incidental costs such as printing.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic. Not always accidental: incidental expenses can be expected. Incidental to identifies a subordinate relationship; accidental describes unintended occurrence. Normally non-gradable in this sense; comparison requires a specific contextual scale. Derived family (not inflections): incidentally.