adv ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adverb

1. 1
   Giving the appearance of carelessness; relaxedly.

   "The papers were carelessly strewn on the table."

2. 2
   Done without care or attention; inattentively.

   "Distracted by the salesperson, he carelessly read the contract."

Adverb

1. 1
   without care or concern wordnet
2. 2
   in a rakish manner wordnet
3. 3
   without caution or prudence wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

a corps perduaboutabsentlyabstractedlyairilyany old way

Antonyms

All antonyms

charymeticulouslycarefully

Example

More examples

"Science can be dangerous when applied carelessly."

Etymology

From careless + -ly.

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