advertent
Americanadjective
Usage
What does advertent mean? Advertent describes something or someone as attentive or heedful, as in Karine aced the test because she was advertent to all the professor’s lectures. Not a very common term, advertent can generally be used to mean attentive, as in paying attention or thinking about something. Someone who is advertent about something is observing or considering their actions and their impact. You’re more likely to see advertent with its more-common antonym, inadvertent. While it means inattentive or unheedful, inadvertent is most often used to mean unintentional. In this situation, advertent would be used to mean the opposite idea—that is, intentional. When something is done advertently, it means that it was done in order to reach a desired outcome. Example: Theo lied about what he was doing Saturday night in an advertent to keep the surprise party a surprise.
Other Word Forms
- advertently adverb
Etymology
Origin of advertent
1665–75; < Latin advertent- (stem of advertēns, present participle of advertere ), equivalent to ad- ad- + vert- turn + -ent- -ent
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Federal prison authorities, he said, “would have very, very substantial concerns about that because of the risk of either advertent or inadvertent disruption of the IV lines.”
From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2021
The narratives that Americans need may be somewhat more advertent, and morally organized.
From Time Magazine Archive
An advertent and sustained foreign policy uses a different part of the brain from the one engaged by horrifying images.
From Time Magazine Archive
Perhaps what Nicholson reveals as the root of the scene is also, in an in advertent Irony, what was wrong with it.
From Time Magazine Archive
The act of adverting, of the quality of being advertent; attention; notice; regard; heedfulness.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
