cad-, cas-, cid-

1. An undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss; casualty; mishap: "automobile accidents".
2. In law, happening resulting in injury that is in no way the fault of the injured person for which compensation or indemnity is legally sought.
3. Any event that happens unexpectedly, without a deliberate plan or cause.
4. By chance; fortune; luck: "I arrived just in time by accident."
5. A fortuitous circumstance, quality, or characteristic: "an accident of birth".
6. In geology, a surface irregularity, usually on a small scale, the reason for which is not apparent.

An unexpected usually sudden event that occurs without intent or volition although sometimes through carelessness, unawareness, ignorance, or a combination of causes and which produces an unfortunate result (as an injury) for which the affected party may be entitled to relief under the law or to compensation under an insurance policy.

Happening by accident; not intended or expected: "It was decided that she died accidentally not by any intended cause."

Accidentally is often mispronounced and misspelled. The word has five syllables ac-ci-den-tal-ly: "The use of accidently is considered a gross error and displays a lack of knowledge of what is supposed to be the correct spelling and pronunciation."

1. A dead body, especially one that is to be dissected, a corpse.
2. A dead human body that may be used by physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being.
3. Etymology: borrowed from Latin cadaver from cadere, "to fall, fall dead, to die".

Students in medical schools study and dissect cadavers as part of their education. Others who study cadavers include archaeologists and artists.

It is said that the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo (1475-1564) studied cadavers by candlelight in a dark morgue (while enduring the smell of rotting flesh) in order to better understand the structures of bone and sinew and muscle.

The fruits of his efforts are evident in his painting "The Creation of Adam" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome and in his marble sculpture "David" in the Galleria dell' Accademia in Florence.

Courts of law sometimes use the term "cadaver" to refer to a dead body, as do recovery teams searching for bodies after a natural disaster; such as, an earthquake or a flood. A dead body is usually a corpse in a mystery story. The term "cadaver" also has a more deathly ring when used by medical professionals.

The grafting of tissue from a dead body onto a living human to repair a defect.

A muscle spasm that causes a dead body to twitch or jerk.

Inhabiting dead bodies; also used to refer to organisms feeding on dead bodies or carrion.

Resembling a cadaver.