 Another issue bears mentioning inasmuch as the present article concerns the distinction between essential and accidental properties and not merely different ways that one may characterize what an essential property is. There is a recognized analytic connection between the terms ‘essential property’ and ‘accidental property’ such that the properties of a given thing divide exclusively and exhaustively into the categories essential and accidental. Although the thought that a thing’s essential properties are those that are a part of its definition has caught on in the philosophical literature, the thought that a thing’s accidental properties are those of its properties that are not part of its definition has not. For example, few would say that it is merely accidental to Socrates to be the sole member of \(\{\text{Socrates}\}\). In short, the phrase ‘accidental property’ tends to be used in the sense of a modally accidental property.