incident

IN-si-duhnt/ˈɪn.sɪ.dənt/

8 meanings of incident

1
eventnouncountable
Something that happens, especially an event that is unusual, unpleasant, or worth noting, often a fairly minor one.
The meeting passed without trouble apart from one awkward incident near the end.
Several witnesses described the incident to the police that evening.
UsageSet phrase: without incident, meaning nothing went wrong. Do not confuse incidents (events) with incidence (how often something happens).
2
problem at worknouncountable
An event that disrupts normal operations or threatens to, such as a workplace illness or a software failure.
The support team classified the outage as a major incident and alerted management.
Every incident must be reported within an hour so the response team can act quickly.
UsageCommon in work and IT phrases: report an incident, a major incident, incident response.
Similardisruption
3
plane troublenouncountable
In aviation, an occurrence linked to operating an aircraft that affects or could affect safety but is less serious than an accident.
The pilot filed a report on the incident after a warning light forced the plane to turn back, although no one was hurt and the aircraft landed safely.
The airline grounded its fleet after the second incident that year.

Less common meanings

4
striking (light)adjective
Falling on or striking a surface, as a beam of light or radiation does.
The incident ray strikes the mirror and reflects at an equal angle.
Engineers calculated how much of the incident radiation the surface absorbed.
UsageBefore a noun (incident light), or after it with on or upon: a ray incident on a surface.
Similarincoming
Note
Physics keeps the Latin "falling on" almost literally: incident light, an incident ray, radiation that arrives at a surface. The angle between the arriving ray and the line perpendicular to the surface, called the normal, is the angle of incidence.
5
coming withadjective
Naturally connected with something or likely to come with it as a result or part of it; usually followed by 'to'.
The responsibilities incident to ownership include repairs, insurance, and taxes.
A degree of stress is often incident to high-pressure work.
UsageFollows its noun or a verb like be: the duties incident to ownership, stress that is incident to the job.
Note
The adjective comes after its noun and takes to: hazards incident to a job, consequences incident to a choice. What it names comes with the thing as part of the package, not by accident. Read "incident to X" as "that goes with X."
6
adjectivearchaic
Happening by chance rather than by design; casual or fortuitous, and not part of the main intention.
As the ordinary course of common affairs is disposed of by general laws, so likewise men's rarer incident necessities and utilities should be with special equity considered.
1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
Similaraccidental, fortuitous, incidental, unplanned
Oppositedeliberate, intentional, planned
Note
Richard Hooker, writing in the 1590s, uses it for what falls outside the ordinary run of things: general laws dispose of common affairs, while "rarer incident necessities" call for special equity. Hooker places it before the noun. The sense now belongs to older writing: modern English says incidental or accidental. Its core is chance, close to fortuitous, which sets it apart from the "comes with" meaning of the incident to construction.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Richard Hooker's use dates to the 1590s: the passage occurs in Book V of Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, published in 1597. en.wikipedia.org
Hooker uses the exact phrase "rarer incident necessities", places incident before the noun, and contrasts ordinary affairs governed by general laws with exceptional needs requiring equity. merecatholicity.com
This sense concerns chance or fortuity, distinct from the sense of something naturally accompanying another thing. en.wiktionary.org
7
adjective
In law, belonging to or depending on another thing, called the principal.
8
adjective
Standing in a relation of incidence, as a point lying on a line or a line passing through a point.

Practice

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Origin

It goes back to Latin incidō ("to happen, befall"), built from in- ("on") and a form of cadō ("to fall"). Its present participle, incidens, gave Middle French incident, and the English word is on record from 1412.