by accident

by accident

Mistakenly or unintentionally. Uh oh, I must have left those files out by accident. Many great scientific discoveries happened entirely by accident.
See also: accident, by
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

by ˈaccident

in a way that is not planned or organized: We met by accident at the airport. Helen got into acting purely by accident.
See also: accident, by
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • by accident or design
  • design
  • (whether) by accident or design
  • accident
  • whether
  • bender
  • fender
  • fender bender
  • fender-bender
  • waiting
References in classic literature
(Indeed, two very necessary words were clearly dropped by accident.) An editor might have corrected "Wickliffe's 'Epigoniad' " to "Wilkie's 'Epigoniad'," but is unlikely to have added "Tuckerman's 'Sicily' " to the list of books read by the narrator.
If she slipped, by accident, from off the Spit, she fell in where there's foothold at the bottom, at a depth that would barely cover her to the waist.
When using the empirical Bayes method the expected number of accidents on a specific location is calculated by weighting the registered number of accidents on the location and the general expected number of accidents for similar sites calculated by accident prediction models.
He said about one-third of government hospital beds are occupied by accident victims.
Tests designed to measure cognitive processes, including thinking, reasoning, and perceiving, have been employed by accident researchers to test the hypothesis that there is a relationship between a particular cognitive skill and accident likelihood.
* The locations should be prioritized by accident rate so that the locations with the highest rate are listed at the top.
And what about the "pain and suffering' endured by accident victims like Robert Demichelis who can't blame their fate on someone else?