Careful

//ˈkɛɹfəl// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Taking care; attentive to potential danger, error or harm; cautious.

    "He was a slow and careful driver."

  2. 2
    Conscientious and painstaking; meticulous.

    "They made a careful search of the crime scene."

  3. 3
    Full of care or grief; sorrowful, sad. obsolete
  4. 4
    Full of cares or anxiety; worried, troubled. obsolete

    "Where through long watch, and late daies weary toile, / She soundly slept, and carefull thoughts did quite assoile."

Adjective
  1. 1
    exercising caution or showing care or attention wordnet
  2. 2
    unhurried and with care and dignity wordnet
  3. 3
    mindful of the future in spending money wordnet
  4. 4
    cautiously attentive wordnet
  5. 5
    full of cares or anxiety wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
mindfulattentivecannycautiouscircumspectdiscreet

Example

More examples

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."

Etymology

From Middle English careful, from Old English carful; equivalent to care + -ful.

Related phrases

be carefulbe careful what you wish for

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.