negligent
Americanadjective
-
guilty of or characterized by neglect, as of duty.
negligent officials.
- Synonyms:
- neglectful
-
lazily careless; offhand.
a negligent wave of his manicured hand.
adjective
-
habitually neglecting duties, responsibilities, etc; lacking attention, care, or concern; neglectful
-
careless or nonchalant
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of negligent
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, variant of necligent, from Latin necligent-, negligent-, stem of negligēns “disregarding,” present participle of negligere, variant of neglegere “to disregard, ignore, slight”; see neglect
Explanation
Use negligent when you want to describe someone who just doesn't give a hoot. You can be negligent at work if you let the work pile up while you play computer games, or you can be negligent at home if you haven't fed your fish for six days straight. The adjective negligent comes from the Latin word neglegentia, meaning "carelessness." Other words that share the same roots include the noun negligence and neglect — which has both noun and verb forms. All three words have meanings that imply the same sort of thing — a lack of attention to the well being of something or someone.
Vocabulary lists containing negligent
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 7
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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.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he was following the accident "with great concern", and had directed authorities to conduct an urgent investigation to "hold accountable anyone found to have been negligent".
From Barron's ● Nov. 8, 2026
Surely, though, it must be possible to punish a company for being reckless or negligent in its use of A.I., even if no one gave an agent a prompt like “Do some crimes.”
From Slate ● Oct. 25, 2026
Joanne Flickinger sued Schwarzenegger for negligent driving which she claimed led to the biking accident that landed her with hefty medical bills.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
But such agreements offer no protection in many instances where AI developers are held negligent, or where they cause harm because of flaws in their products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
The truth was, by then, the cancer in Baba’s brain had made him forgetful, negligent.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
