inadvertent
adjective
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The Formation of Inadvertent
It may look innocent, but inadvertent belongs to a class of words that provoke anger in many people who care about language – to wit, the back-formation. Bucking the usual trend in which longer words are formed from shorter ones by the addition of an affix (for example, superficiality from superficial), back-formations are created by clipping off a piece of a longer word; in this case, inadvertent was back-formed from inadvertence or inadvertency. A fair number of these words populate English, including brainwash (from brainwashing), complicit (from complicity), escalate (from escalator), and televise (from television). Certain back-formations, such as liaise (which comes from liaison) rub some people the wrong way. While they are under no obligation to accept liaise, there is nothing inherently wrong with back-formations; they are just another way our language has of creating new words.
Examples of inadvertent in a Sentence
Katherine Lemasters, The Conversation, 13 June 2025
The team representative and the driver apologised for the inadvertent breach.
—Lydia Mee, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 May 2025
Industries that have gained from the largely inadvertent protectionist effect of sanctions include agriculture, light manufacturing, and consumer services such as fast food.
—Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor, 14 May 2025
These inadvertent discriminatory outputs could lead to serious legal and compliance issues and infringe on the privacy rights of individuals.
—Forbes.com, 2 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for inadvertent
Cite this Entry
“Inadvertent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inadvertent. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
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inadvertent
adjective
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