carelessness

/ˈkɛrlɪsnɪs/

/ˈkɛlɪsnɪs/

Other forms: carelessnesses

Acting without thinking things through is carelessness. Don't try to text a friend while you're riding your bike, or your carelessness may send you crashing into a mailbox.

You can think of carelessness as negligence, a failure to pay close attention or carefully consider the possible ramifications of your actions. Driver carelessness causes many traffic accidents, and a writer's carelessness can result in grammatical errors and misspellings. The Old English version of this word, carleasnes, meant "freedom from anxiety," something closer to nonchalance than today's carelessness.

Definitions of carelessness

1. noun

   failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances
   synonyms: neglect, negligence, nonperformance

   types:

   dereliction

   willful negligence

   comparative negligence

   (law) negligence allocated between the plaintiff and the defendant with a corresponding reduction in damages paid to the plaintiff

   concurrent negligence

   (law) negligence of two of more persons acting independently; the plaintiff may sue both together or separately

   contributory negligence

   (law) behavior by the plaintiff that contributes to the harm resulting from the defendant's negligence

   criminal negligence, culpable negligence

   (law) recklessly acting without reasonable caution and putting another person at risk of injury or death (or failing to do something with the same consequences)

   neglect of duty

   (law) breach of a duty

   dodging, escape, evasion

   nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do

   nonfeasance

   a failure to act when under an obligation to do so; a refusal (without sufficient excuse) to do that which it is your legal duty to do

   escape mechanism

   a form of behavior that evades unpleasant realities

   malingering, skulking

   evading duty or work by pretending to be incapacitated

   goldbricking, goofing off, shirking, slacking, soldiering

   the evasion of work or duty

   circumvention

   the act of evading by going around

   type of:

   nonaccomplishment, nonachievement

   an act that does not achieve its intended goal
2. noun

   the quality of not being careful or taking pains
   synonyms: sloppiness

   antonyms:

   carefulness

   the quality of being careful and painstaking

   types:

   incaution, incautiousness

   the trait of forgetting or ignoring possible danger

   neglect, neglectfulness, negligence

   the trait of neglecting responsibilities and lacking concern

   unconscientiousness

   the trait of not being painstaking or careful

   unwariness

   the trait of not being cautious and watchful

   delinquency, dereliction, willful neglect

   a tendency to be negligent and uncaring

   laxity, laxness, remissness, slackness

   an absence of rigor or strictness

   imprudence

   a lack of caution in practical affairs

   type of:

   inattentiveness

   the trait of not being considerate and thoughtful of others