inadvertent
adjective
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The Formation of Inadvertent
It may look innocent, but inadvertent belongs to a class of words that provoke anger in many people who care about language – to wit, the back-formation. Bucking the usual trend in which longer words are formed from shorter ones by the addition of an affix (for example, superficiality from superficial), back-formations are created by clipping off a piece of a longer word; in this case, inadvertent was back-formed from inadvertence or inadvertency. A fair number of these words populate English, including brainwash (from brainwashing), complicit (from complicity), escalate (from escalator), and televise (from television). Certain back-formations, such as liaise (which comes from liaison) rub some people the wrong way. While they are under no obligation to accept liaise, there is nothing inherently wrong with back-formations; they are just another way our language has of creating new words.
Synonyms
Examples of inadvertent in a Sentence
Nina Turner, Newsweek, 30 Oct. 2024
And then there is Loren Munk’s wildly colored painting of a map with text that recounts the galleries of Soho — perhaps an inadvertent nod at the gravitational pull of the Manhattan art scene and its wealthy patrons.
—Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2024
Some remembered fondly their own inadvertent artworks made by children.
—Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 31 Oct. 2024
This increases the possibility that the product will be successful in a variety of markets and lessens the possibility of inadvertent prejudice or oversight that could end up alienating certain customer segments.
—David Hengartner, Forbes, 24 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for inadvertent 
Dictionary Entries Near inadvertent
Cite this Entry
“Inadvertent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inadvertent. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
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inadvertent
adjective
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