blithely
Americanadverb
-
without much thought, concern, or care.
I blithely went ahead with my project without really considering the impact it would have on my career.
-
in a joyous or happy way; cheerfully or lightheartedly.
Left to my own devices I would blithely live the rest of my days imagining new recipes and tweaking old ones.
Etymology
Origin of blithely
Explanation
The adverb blithely describes something you do in a casually cheerful, somewhat neglectful way, like when you blithely ride your bike down the street, not even thinking about all the homework you have to do. Something that's done blithely is careless, like a group of kids blithely dashing off across a frozen pond on their ice skates, forgetting about their slower friend. You could talk blithely about your brand new laptop, forgetting that your friend can't afford a new computer. Blithely also means "happily," without implying that anything is being overlooked or ignored, like a winning team blithely celebrating their victory.
Vocabulary lists containing blithely
Animal Farm
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 8–13
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Stargirl
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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.
Policy elites on both sides of the Atlantic blithely assumed that engagement with the West would lead China to liberalize.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
One thinks of the citizens of Buffy’s Sunnydale, blithely going about their business, not moving away despite being located on a Hellmouth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026
Hoecker says cutting jobs also signals to stock market investors worried about the "real and huge" cost of AI development that executives are not blithely writing blank cheques.
From BBC ● Mar. 29, 2026
But this isn’t to say that workers of any age should blithely assume they’ll be immune to job eliminations due to AI.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2025
The “agricultural engineers” speak blithely of “chemical plowing” in a world that is urged to beat its plowshares into spray guns.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
