- occurrence
- occurrence, event, incident, episode, circumstance are comparable when they denote something that happens or takes place.Occurrence is the general term for something which takes place{
such a happy and convenient occurrence, the princess's conversion— H. G. Wells
}{chanced to witness Pussy's death—happily no common occurrence, as a cat, like an Englishman, considers dying a strictly private affair— Repplier
}{I have not . . . quoted conversation or described occurrence from the private life of named or recognizable living persons— Yeats
}Event is frequently regarded as arising from an antecedent state of things and is usually applied to a more or less important or noteworthy occurrence{the events of the year
}{the sequence of events that followed the declaration of war
}{the course of human events—U.S. Declaration of Independence
}{events acting upon us in unexpected, abrupt, and violent ways— Dewey
}{the flat, monotonous plains stretch away ... a single tree . . . becomes an event— Moorehead
}An incident (compare incidental under ACCIDENTAL) is commonly an occurrence of subordinate character or secondary importance, either a mere casual happening having little relation to major events or an occurrence that merely follows because of them{her tone implied that bedroom fires were a quite ordinary incident of daily life in a place like Bursley— Bennett
}{very few individuals can be considered as more than incidents in the life histories of the societies to which they belong— Linton
}The term may, however, be used of a single event that stands out or is marked off clearly from the other events (as in a story, a play, or a history) in its nature or significance{the book narrates a series of thrilling incidents
}{he was delighted and looked upon the incident as an adventure— Anderson
}{and beat him she did—in just over 72 days—with only one dangerous incident. A "titled cad" tried to flirt with her— Sat. Review
}or applied to a critical event that provokes a break in diplomatic relations between countries or suggests the possibility of war{border incidents
}Episode (see also DIGRESSION) is often used in place of incident in the sense of a single or outstanding event, but the term usually carries a stronger implication of distinctiveness or apartness from the main course than does incident{a pretty little domestic episode occurred this morning— Meredith
}{Clare would inevitably . . . come to regard her passion for Oliver Hobart and its tragic sequel as a romantic episode of girlhood— Rose Macaulay
}Circumstance is used as a synonym of incident only when the latter is thought of as a specific or significant detail{before closing his door for the night, [he] stood reflecting on the circumstances of the preceding hours— Hardy
}The word is also occasionally used as a syn-onym for event in its more general sense{a life every circumstance of which is regulated after an unchangeable pattern— Wilde
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
