incident vs occurrence

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. 

occurrence

noun
  • An actual instance when a situation occurs; an event or happening. 

  • The lexical aspect (aktionsart) of verbs or predicates that change in or over time. 

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