Distracted means your attention has been pulled somewhere else. You read the same paragraph three times and take in none of it, because the phone keeps lighting up on the arm of the chair.
It describes people, not tasks: a distracted driver, a distracted glance at the clock, sorry, I'm a bit distracted today. There is a shadow of worry in it, because someone distracted looks half-present, as though something is sitting on their mind. Watch the prepositions — distracted BY the noise, distracted FROM your work. The verb is distract and the noun is distraction, and a distraction is not always a bad thing: the film was a welcome distraction.
1adjectivedistractedUnable to give attention to something because something else has taken it.
“He was too distracted to follow what she was saying.”
2adjectiveshowingShowing worry or preoccupation.
“She gave a distracted nod and went back to staring out of the window.”
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Thinking & Memory
First appears in chapter 13 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word