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I saw someone's comment in my Facebook group having a small chat with someone else from the UK and caught this word "accidently". To make sure I didn't mistakenly see this, I should provide this screenshot:

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This word is not listed in my dictionary app: OALD, but it is, in M-W. However, I see this note:

The adverb accidently has been in use since the 18th century. It continues to appear regularly in published writing, but it is far less common than accidentally, and it is sometimes cited as an error.

The person seems to be 40+ years old, so I think mentioning that info above is relevant. It's really either the person wrote that intentionally or subconsciously. However, I want to know whether in the formal context this word is considered as a typo of accidentally or not. Or if there's any difference I don't know, please do let me know.

I think it's worth mentioning that, in my ears view, when I hear this word i.e. accidently. It sounds to me that the event happens not only by mistakes, but by a real accident that perhaps could be not a mistake. Suppose when someone accidently stabbed my heart. However that's my opinion.

Samathingamajig
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user516076
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    You have researched it in dictionaries. What more do you expect from people here? As far as I'm concerned it is not a word in current use, and is a mistake in the post you have quoted. – Colin Fine Aug 20 '22 at 09:58
  • @Colin Fine there are most cases when I try to trust a dictionary and I'm blamed by a native speaker, that the word does exist, etc. So, it's really wise to reaffirm here, since experts could give me more depth explanation. – user516076 Aug 20 '22 at 10:37
  • I also have mentioned in the question, that I had a though that this might be a real and different word. And Thanks to James, my guess turned out to be wrong. – user516076 Aug 20 '22 at 10:41
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    Merriam-Webster is about as good an authority on American English as you'll get; they publish detailed usage information based on sound research and expert usage panels. Most people answering questions here will use Merriam-Webster as a resource. – Stuart F Aug 20 '22 at 11:41
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    I think the age of the writer is irrelevant. I'm nearly twice as old and I've never used the accidently spelling. – Peter Jennings Aug 20 '22 at 12:00
  • "in my ears view" - you can see with your ears? – Michael Harvey Aug 20 '22 at 13:39
  • Accidently; when the oral surgeon removes the wrong tooth. – bmargulies Aug 20 '22 at 18:57
  • There's also the song "Accidently Kelly Street" where the word was initially misspelled but the band decided to keep the misspelling as the official title. – Crash Gordon Aug 20 '22 at 23:15

2 Answers2

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It's a mistake.

English has no authority to tell you how you should spell. There is no Academy of English, as there is in France (for example). So correct spelling is defined by regular use and regular construction from root words.

Here the construction is "adjective +ly" and the adjective is "accidental" There is no use of "accident" as an adjective (it appears as an element in some compound words like "accident management" but there it is still a noun). So the regular construction would be "accidentally".

On the other hand, Middle English used "accidentlych" as an adverb, and this would produce "accidently" in modern English.

So the decider must be "actual use", and here it is clear from ngrams that "accidentally" is far more common. When you investigate uses of "accidently" you find that they are in things like self-published romance novels, collections of student essays, and lists of commonly misspelled words. That is there is almost no use of "accidently" in well-edited published writing.

But you don't need me to tell you this. Since you can look in a dictionary and it tells you

"Accidently usually considered a mispelling"

Conclusion: It is a mistake.

James K
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  • I'm not sure the first part is that helpful: words in -ent are overwhelmingly adjectives (apart from those with the suffix -ment). Some have become nouns as well (patent, dependent) but accident is rare in having lost its adjectival meaning. I agree strongly with the second part, though. – Colin Fine Aug 20 '22 at 16:07
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By using the spelling "accidently," you will probably draw attention to the word itself. In doing so, you will probably distract your reader. That, in turn, will detract attention from the main message you are trying to convey. In other words, unless your main message has to do with diction, stick with "accidentally."

Steve
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