Regardless Definition & Meaning

Q: Does 'irregardless' mean the same thing as 'regardless'?

Yes. We define irregardless as "regardless." Many people find irregardless to be a nonsensical word, as the ir - prefix usually functions to indicate negation; however, in this case it appears to function as an intensifier. Similar ir - words, while rare, do exist in English, including irremediless ("remediless"), irresistless ("resistless") and irrelentlessly ("relentlessly).

Q: Is 'irregardless' slang?

We label irregardless as “nonstandard” rather than “slang.” When a word is nonstandard it means it is “not conforming in pronunciation, grammatical construction, idiom, or word choice to the usage generally characteristic of educated native speakers of a language.” Irregardless is a long way from winning general acceptance as a standard English word. For that reason, it is best to use regardless instead.

Frequently Asked Questions About regardless

Is irregardless a word?

Yes. It may not be a word that you like, or a word that you would use in a term paper, but irregardless certainly is a word. It has been in use for well over 200 years, employed by a large number of people across a wide geographic range and with a consistent meaning. That is why we, and well-nigh every other dictionary of modern English, define this word. Remember that a definition is not an endorsement of a word’s use.

Does irregardless mean the same thing as regardless?

Yes. We define irregardless as "regardless." Many people find irregardless to be a nonsensical word, as the ir- prefix usually functions to indicate negation; however, in this case it appears to function as an intensifier. Similar ir- words, while rare, do exist in English, including irremediless ("remediless"), irresistless ("resistless") and irrelentlessly ("relentlessly).

Is irregardless slang?

We label irregardless as “nonstandard” rather than “slang.” When a word is nonstandard it means it is “not conforming in pronunciation, grammatical construction, idiom, or word choice to the usage generally characteristic of educated native speakers of a language.” Irregardless is a long way from winning general acceptance as a standard English word. For that reason, it is best to use regardless instead.

Examples of regardless in a Sentence

Adverb the weather looked bad, but they were resolved to go on with their picnic regardless

Recent Examples on the Web: Adverb The Celtics are confident that Nesmith will remain prepared regardless, and their belief in his potential has not wavered. — Adam Himmelsbach, BostonGlobe.com, 18 May 2022 The length of the trial will depend on how the defendant will plead, but the prosecution has sufficient proof regardless, Syniuk told ABC News. — Bynadine El-bawab Andclark Bentson, ABC News, 14 May 2022 This decision was not made lightly because the father was determined to do the race with his young child regardless. — Cameron Knight, The Enquirer, 5 May 2022 Neighbors also pointed out that the traffic would be there regardless for the festival. — Drew Dawson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4 May 2022 Despite the fact that TikTok has created tools to combat this type of hateful feedback — such as comment filters, bulk comment deletion, and bulk account blocking, to name a few — some makes its way through to us regardless. — Allure, 4 May 2022 The Hall soon thereafter released a statement saying that her name was staying on the ballot regardless. — Chris Willman, Variety, 4 May 2022 Surely there’s a money-making angle here, but regardless, a tip of the cap to Google for its education announcement Monday. — Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 3 May 2022 But constitutional obstacles to climate action highlighted by experts at ASU last week suggest there would have been challenges regardless. — Joan Meiners, The Arizona Republic, 27 Apr. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'regardless.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.