Forgetful

//fərˈɡɛtfəl// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Unable to remember things well; liable to forget.

    "Nor has Dalua part or mention in the antique legend. Like other ancient things, this divinity hath come secretly upon us in a forgetful time, new and strange and terrible, though his unremembered shadow crossed our way when first we set out on our long travel, in the youth of the world."

  2. 2
    Dropping some of the input's structure or properties before producing an output.

    "a forgetful mapping; a forgetful functor"

Adjective
  1. 1
    failing to keep in mind wordnet
  2. 2
    not mindful or attentive wordnet
  3. 3
    (of memory) deficient in retentiveness or range wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
inattentiveunmindfulabsentabsent-mindedabsentmindedabstracted

Example

More examples

"Even the most self-centered people are usually forgetful of this fault."

Etymology

From Middle English *forgetful, *forȝetful (suggested by derivative forgetfulnesse, forȝetfulnesse (“forgetfulness”)), equivalent to forget + -ful.

Related phrases

forgetful functor

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