absent-minded

Or ab·sent·mind·ed

[ab-suhnt-mahyn-did]

adjective

1. so lost in thought that one does not realize what one is doing, what is happening, etc.; preoccupied to the extent of being unaware of one's immediate surroundings.

   Synonyms: distracted, forgetful, dreamy, musing, withdrawn
   Antonyms: observant, heedful, alert, attentive

absent-minded

adjective

1. preoccupied; forgetful; inattentive

Other Word Forms

• absent-mindedly adverb
• absent-mindedness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of absent-minded¹

First recorded in 1850–55

Synonym Study

Absent-minded, abstracted, oblivious all mean inattentive to immediate surroundings. Absent-minded suggests an unintentional wandering of the mind from the present: an absent-minded committee member. Abstracted implies that the mind has been drawn away from the immediate present by reflection upon some engrossing subject: an abstracted air. Oblivious implies absorption in some thought that causes one to be completely forgetful of or unaware of one's surroundings: oblivious of danger.

Example Sentences

Many women talk about having "pregnancy brain" or "baby brain", to describe feeling forgetful, absent-minded or having brain fog.

From BBC

Together, they wrote dozens of songs for Disney TV productions and movies such as “The Parent Trap,” “The Absent-Minded Professor,” “Summer Magic,” “That Darn Cat!,”

From Los Angeles Times

I swear, I’m so absent-minded …

From New York Times

The full transcript of President Joe Biden’s five-hour interview with special counsel Robert Hur’s investigators “paints a more nuanced portrait” of Biden’s memory than the special counsel’s report, according to The Washington Post, which noted that “Biden doesn’t come across as being as absent-minded as Hur has made him out to be.”

From Salon

The irony, here, is that for all Biden’s absent-minded slippage and age-related pronunciation difficulties, he is manifestly still in charge at the White House.

From Slate