INATTENTIVE Synonyms: 44 Similar and Opposite Words

inattentive

adjective

Definition of inattentive

as in heedless

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of inattentive This is not to say Costco shoppers are inattentive. — Donna Vickroy, Chicago Tribune, 29 May 2026 The Waffle House waitress said the building’s management was inattentive to a raft of deeper issues, from sewage backups that crept into her bathtub to mold and a malfunctioning air conditioning unit. — Ben Paviour, Sacbee.com, 27 May 2026 The trend closely matches data previously disclosed by Waymo, where self-driving vehicles are often hit by inattentive human drivers who misjudge or fail to anticipate the car’s cautious stopping behavior. — Bojan Stojkovski, Interesting Engineering, 16 May 2026 The bike path runs through the crosswalks, and disabled or slow-moving pedestrians, or those who are simply inattentive, will have to contend with riders zinging through at high speed. — Christopher Bonanos, Curbed, 30 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for inattentive

Recent Examples of Synonyms for inattentive

Adjective

Damon’s Odysseus is numbed by the massacre of Troy’s civilians; Fiennes’ hates himself for leading the best men of Ithaca to their death, gutting his own community in the heedless destruction of another.

— Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 2026
Later, in Capital, Marx warns that soil depletion caused by the heedless exploitation of nature would threaten the physical foundation of society itself.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 July 2026

Definition of heedless

Adjective

The usual bleary nausea of such early rises is absent, shooed away by sobriety, exercises, and fruits and vegetables.

— CNT Editors, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Oct. 2026
And most experts don’t think there will be much relief for homebuyers in the next year or so, absent some big changes, such as the war in Iran ending or oil prices dramatically falling.

— Zach Halaschak, The Washington Examiner, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of absent

Adjective

Ira, in my very uneducated opinion, there are eight teams in the East that could finish first, and any of those eight could be eighth.

— Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 24 Sep. 2026
As a peripheral community grows around them, this lawless terrain is suddenly subject to boundaries and contracts and taxes; both uneducated and illiterate, Isak and Inger are ill prepared for such societal evolution.

— Guy Lodge, Variety, 16 Sep. 2026

Definition of uneducated

Adjective

As materials pass through hubs like Singapore, their origins often become increasingly abstracted.

— Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle, Forbes.com, 19 Mar. 2026
Affecting meaningful change — or suffering from the lack of it — has become so abstracted for the rich and powerful that everything feels like entertainment to them.

— David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 7 Sep. 2025

Definition of abstracted

Adjective

Scholars hazarded theories as to how an unschooled middle-aged Black woman from the South could brush with genius.

— Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2026
Mata was also concerned about how the data failed to display how INA staff works with the lowest English proficiency students in the district — specifically those who are unschooled, and oftentimes refugees who have just entered the country.

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 Apr. 2026

Definition of unschooled

Adjective

In the year 2024/25, nearly 10% of teaching hours in public secondary education went untaught, according to data from the education ministry.

— Will Barker, TheWeek, 5 Oct. 2026
By the early sixties, the romance of the untaught or naïve artist was really catching.

— Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2026

Definition of untaught

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“Inattentive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inattentive. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of inattentive

adjective

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