inadvertently

adverbC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,070 of 15,258leans written

Inadvertently means without meaning to. Inadvertently deleted, inadvertently revealed, quite inadvertently.

It is the formal apology word and does real work in official statements, since inadvertently concedes the fact and denies the intention in one move. It is heavier than by accident and lighter than by mistake.

Definitions of inadvertently

1adverbinadvertentlyWithout meaning to.C1
“I inadvertently sent the email to the whole office instead of just my friend.”

inadvertently is a manner.

Also accepted in games: unintentionally

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin
inadvertēns
English
inadvertent
English, today
inadvertently

From inadvertent + -ly. inadvertent Borrowed from Medieval Latin inadvertēns.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

inadvertently in the wild

To prevent the child from experiencing the intense pain of castration, many were inadvertently administered lethal doses of opium or some other narcotic.
Castrato
Others inadvertently died from extended compression of the carotid artery in the neck, intended to render them unconscious during the castration procedure.
Castrato
Sites that publish their access logs, including referrer statistics, will then inadvertently link back to the spammer's site.
Referrer spam
Rydia joins Cecil after he inadvertently destroys her village, not knowing that a package he was delivering was meant to destroy it.
Rydia
In this episode, Elaine leaves an erotic message on a tape recorder as a prank, inadvertently causing George to harbor a secret crush on her.
The Tape

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the inadvertēns family

inadvertently inadvertent

inadvertently — used about once every 3,111 pages · #8,070 · point at the bar for the others

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