purely coincidental
3
5.1
- adjective
- /ˈpjʊrli koʊˈɪnsɪdɛntl/
:
puramente accidental
- Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.
Examples
-
Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Blog text (19) -
Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Blog text (4) -
But is it purely coincidental that one of the main sources of funding is a deep space exploration company?
-
Any resemblance between any real person... living or dead, is purely coincidental.
-
Any resemblance to anyone we know is, of course, purely coincidental.
Fiction book (1999) -
All characters are fictitious; any similarity to actual persons is purely coincidental.
Blog text (2) -
Unless otherwise stated, any resemblance to persons (living and dead) and places are purely coincidental.
Blog text (12) -
I bumped into her at the grocery store, but our meeting was purely coincidental.
-
The similar patterns in our research findings are purely coincidental.
-
It seems purely coincidental that both events occurred on the same day.
Synonyms
527
3.4
Happening without a plan and by chance
118
3.0
Happening by chance and not planned
53
4.1
Not planned and not done on purpose
32
4.8
Happening by chance at the same time as something else
26
4.1
Happening by accident
15
6.6
Not done on purpose and happening by accident
15
7.3
Happening by chance in a lucky or helpful way
10
7.4
Happening by chance and bringing good results
Antonyms
How Accidental
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'purely' functions as an intensifier meaning 'entirely/only', applied to 'coincidental' ('happening by chance'), yielding 'entirely accidental'. This intensifier + adjective pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Purely coincidental comes from the image of two things that 'fall together' without planning, because coincide originally meant 'fall together'. That's why purely coincidental means 'completely by chance' or 'accidental'.