accident

noun

1 he was involved in an accident at work:

mishap, misfortune, misadventure, mischance, unfortunate incident, injury, disaster, tragedy, catastrophe, contretemps, calamity, blow, trouble, problem, difficulty;

technical casualty.

2 there was an accident on the motorway:

crash, collision, bump, car crash, car accident, road accident, traffic accident, multiple crash, multiple collision;

rail accident, derailment;

air accident, air crash;

British smash, road traffic accident, RTA;

North American wreck;

informal smash-up, pile-up, shunt;

British, informal prang.

3 it is no accident that there is a similarity between them:

chance, mere chance, coincidence, twist of fate, freak, hazard;

piece of good fortune, (bit of) luck, (bit of) good luck, fluke, happy chance;

serendipity, fate, fortuity, fortune, providence;

North American happenstance.

□ by accident

we met purely by accident:

fortuitously, accidentally, coincidentally, by chance, by coincidence, by a fluke, unintentionally, inadvertently;

unwittingly, unknowingly, unawares, unconsciously;

by mistake, mistakenly.

▷antonyms intentionally.

accident Oxford Dictionary of English