Meaning & use

careless

adjective·Everyday

Not giving enough attention or thought to what one is doing, resulting in mistakes or harm.

See it in a sentence

A careless mistake in the calculations caused the bridge design to fail inspection.

He was careless with his keys and lost them twice in one week.

A note on using this word

Careless focuses on lack of attention rather than lack of skill, and is often followed by 'with' or 'about.'

Words with a similar meaning

negligentsloppy

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

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