1. incidental - Noun
2. incidental - Adjective
3. incidental - Adjective Satellite
not of prime or central importance
occurring with or following as a consequence
(sometimes followed by `to') minor or casual or subordinate in significance or nature or occurring as a chance concomitant or consequence
an item that is incidental
(frequently plural) an expense not budgeted or not specified
Source: WordNetJustice is merely incidental to law and order. J. Edgar Hoover
Anecdotal data is not incidental to theory development at all, but an essential part of it. Henry Mintzberg
The race question is subsidiary to the class question in politics, and to think of imperialism in terms of race is disastrous. But to neglect the racial factor as merely incidental is an error only less grave than to make it fundamental. C. L. R. James
As for the subject matter in my painting...it is very often an incidental thing in the background, elusive and unclear, that really stirred me. William Baziotes
In other searchings it might be the object of the quest that brought satisfaction, or it might be something incidental that one got on the way; but in religion, desire was fulfilment, it was the seeking itself that rewarded. Willa Cather
The artist's aim is not to instruct the viewer, but to give information, whether the viewer understands the information is incidental to the artist. Sol LeWitt