case vs incident

case

noun
  • An actual event, situation, or fact. 

  • An instance of a specific condition or set of symptoms. 

  • A small fissure which admits water into the workings. 

  • A box that contains or can contain a number of identical items of manufacture. 

  • A thin layer of harder metal on the surface of an object whose deeper metal is allowed to remain soft. 

  • The outer covering or framework of a piece of apparatus such as a computer. 

  • A section of code representing one of the actions of a conditional switch. 

  • Grammatical cases and their meanings taken either as a topic in general or within a specific language. 

  • A legal proceeding, lawsuit. 

  • A piece of work, specifically defined within a profession. 

  • An instance or event as a topic of study. 

  • A box, sheath, or covering generally. 

  • A specific inflection of a word (particularly a noun, pronoun, or adjective) depending on its function in the sentence. 

  • A suitcase. 

  • A shallow tray divided into compartments or "boxes" for holding type, traditionally arranged in sets of two, the "upper case" (containing capitals, small capitals, accented) and "lower case" (small letters, figures, punctuation marks, quadrats, and spaces). 

  • A piece of luggage that can be used to transport an apparatus such as a sewing machine. 

  • An enclosing frame or casing. 

  • A cardboard box that holds (usually 24) beer bottles or cans. 

  • Four of a kind. 

  • A piece of furniture, constructed partially of transparent glass or plastic, within which items can be displayed. 

  • The nature of a piece of alphabetic type, whether a “capital” (upper case) or “small” (lower case) letter. 

  • A unit of liquid measure used to measure sales in the beverage industry, equivalent to 192 fluid ounces. 

adj
  • The last remaining card of a particular rank. 

verb
  • To survey (a building or other location) surreptitiously, as in preparation for a robbery. 

  • To place (an item or items of manufacture) into a box, as in preparation for shipment. 

  • To cover or protect with, or as if with, a case; to enclose. 

incident

noun
  • An event or occurrence. 

  • An event that causes or may cause an interruption or a crisis, such as a workplace illness or a software error. 

  • A (relatively minor) event that is incidental to, or related to others. 

adj
  • Dependent upon, or appertaining to, another thing, called the principal. 

  • Liable to happen; apt to occur; befalling; hence, naturally happening or appertaining. 

  • Arising as the result of an event, inherent. 

  • Coming or happening accidentally; not in the usual course of things; not in connection with the main design; not according to expectation; casual; fortuitous. 

  • Falling on or striking a surface. 

How often have the words case and incident occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )