Synonyms for adventitious
- adjective
Most common
extraneous incidental accidental spontaneous extrinsic exogenous
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Extraneous — accidental, additional, appearing casually
extraneous, incidental, accidental, spontaneous, casual, fortuitous, unforeseen, occasional, random, serendipitous, coincidental, sporadic, causeless, unintentional, unintended, hapchance formal rare
Other
foreign, superfluous, acquired, appurtenant, adscititious, advential
Definitions
- adj. 1
From an external source; not innate or inherent, foreign.
- adj. 2
Accidental, additional, appearing casually.
Example sentences
- accidental The inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.
- spontaneous Tom and Mary aren't very spontaneous, are they?
- incidental His criticism only referred to incidental matters.
- extraneous Love is what matters; everything else is extraneous.
- acquired AIDS means "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome".
- superfluous I agree that the feelings are indeed superfluous.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| adventitious | falling | |
| accidental | falling | |
| spontaneous | steady | |
| incidental | falling | |
| extraneous | falling | |
| acquired | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 6 letters
- random2, casual3
- 7 letters
- foreign2
- 8 letters
- acquired3, sporadic3
- 9 letters
- exogenous4, extrinsic3, causeless, hapchance, advential
- 10 letters
- occasional4, accidental4, incidental4, unintended4, unforeseen3, extraneous4, fortuitous4
- 11 letters
- spontaneous4, superfluous3, appurtenant
- 12 letters
- coincidental5, adscititious
- 13 letters
- unintentional5, serendipitous5
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (random2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- adventice
- Español
- adventicio