negligence

UK/ˈnɛɡlɪd͡ʒəns/US/ˈnɛɡlɪd͡ʒəns/

nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,318 of 15,258neutral

Negligence is failing to take the care a reasonable person would. Gross negligence, medical negligence, sue for negligence.

It is one of the central ideas in civil law: a claim needs a duty of care, a breach of it, and harm caused by that breach. Gross negligence is a much worse grade and can be criminal, as in gross negligence manslaughter. Contributory negligence reduces a claim when the injured person was partly at fault. Note negligent, negligently; and that negligence is failing to act with care, not failing on purpose.

Definitions of negligence

1nounnegligenceFailing to take the care a reasonable person would.B2+
“The hospital was found guilty of negligence after a patient was given the wrong drug.”

negligence is a failure of care.

Where it comes from

Latin neglegentia comes from neglegere, to disregard — nec plus legere, to gather or pick up. Negligence is literally not picking something up.

Proto-Indo-European
*leǵ-
Latin
neglegentia
Old French
negligence
Middle English
necligence
English, today
negligence

From Middle English necligence, negligence, from Old French negligence, from Latin neglegentia.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Crime & Law

Practise this word

negligence in the wild

In the law of torts, malpractice, also known as professional negligence, is an "instance of negligence or incompetence on the part of a professional".
Malpractice
Within the scope of tort law, negligence pertains to harm caused by the violation of a duty of care through a negligent act or failure to act.
Negligence
The elements of a negligence claim include the duty to act or refrain from action, breach of that duty, actual and proximate cause of harm, and damages.
Negligence
In res ipsa loquitur, the existence of the first three elements is inferred from the existence of injury that does not ordinarily occur without negligence.
Res ipsa loquitur
In criminal law, criminal negligence is an offence that involves a breach of an objective standard of behaviour expected of a defendant.
Criminal negligence

1 / 2

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.

← Vocabulary