Meaning & use
caring
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Paying kind attention to other people's needs and feelings and wanting to help them.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: a caring nurse, he is very caring.
Patterns
- a caring person
- caring about someone
Our caring neighbor brought soup when I had the flu.
She is a caring teacher who notices when a student is upset.
It was a caring gesture to wait with him until his ride arrived.
noununcountable
The work of looking after people who are young, sick, old or otherwise unable to manage alone.
Grammar: No plural and no article: caring can be exhausting.
Patterns
- caring for someone
Caring for her father took up most of her week.
The charity supports families who share the caring of a disabled child.
Many people balance paid work with unpaid caring at home.
Word forms
| comparative | more caring |
|---|---|
| superlative | most caring |
Common combinations
- caring and supportive
- The staff were caring and supportive throughout her treatment.
- caring nature
- His caring nature made him popular with the children.
- caring profession
- Nursing is often called a caring profession.
- caring responsibilities
- She cut her hours because of caring responsibilities.
- warm and caring
- They described their grandmother as warm and caring.
Synonyms and how they differ
- kind
- Kind can describe a single generous act, while caring suggests an ongoing concern for people's wellbeing.
- compassionate
- Compassionate is stronger and more formal, focusing on sympathy for suffering in particular.
- considerate
- Considerate is about thinking of others' comfort in small everyday matters, such as being quiet late at night.
- thoughtful
- Thoughtful stresses noticing what others would like or need, often in a specific act, whereas caring describes a general disposition.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: caring or careful?
caring vs careful
Careful means paying attention to avoid mistakes or danger; caring means showing concern for people.
Practice
The nurse was so ____ that she stayed late to comfort a frightened patient.
Choose one answer.
Caring fits because she showed concern for the patient's feelings. Careful describes avoiding errors, which is not the point here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “caring”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.