negligent

[neg-li-juhnt]

adjective

1. guilty of or characterized by neglect, as of duty.

   negligent officials.

   Synonyms: neglectful

2. lazily careless; offhand.

   a negligent wave of his manicured hand.

negligent

/ ˈnɛɡlɪdʒənt /

adjective

1. habitually neglecting duties, responsibilities, etc; lacking attention, care, or concern; neglectful

2. careless or nonchalant

Other Word Forms

• negligently adverb
• nonnegligent adjective
• nonnegligently adverb
• overnegligent adjective
• overnegligently adverb
• prenegligent adjective
• quasi-negligent adjective
• supernegligent adjective
• supernegligently adverb
• unnegligent adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of negligent¹

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”; neglect

Example Sentences

"We have reason to believe that those in charge at the company were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties," a police spokesperson said.

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Instead of exploding at her negligent loved ones, she breaks free by taking off on her motorcycle to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.

Read more on Salon

Wuterich maintained he could not remember what had happened in Safa's house, and agreed to plead guilty to one count of negligent dereliction of duty - a charge unrelated to any direct involvement in the killings.

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He was convicted of assault with a firearm, illegal possession of a firearm and negligent discharge of a gun, following a two-week trial that featured tearful testimony from Pete.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Sonia accuses Northamptonshire Police of being negligent in following up on the domestic abuse case.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• inadvertent 
• inattentive 
• lax 
• sloppy