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.
Examples of inadvertent in a Sentence
Laurie Whitwell, New York Times, 10 July 2025
Again, all of those things could be inadvertent or intentional.
—Tony Maglio, HollywoodReporter, 8 July 2025
Given the circumstances, American policymakers should focus on more manageable, critical goals, such as reducing the risk of inadvertent war, particularly in the South China Sea and other flash points.
—William Hurst, Foreign Affairs, 3 July 2025
Ventura, Combs’ ex-girlfriend, played an inadvertent role in jump-starting the federal investigation into Combs when 2016 surveillance footage surfaced in 2024, that appears to show Combs violently beating her in a hotel hallway.
—Aja Romano, Vox, 2 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for inadvertent
Cite this Entry
“Inadvertent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inadvertent. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
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inadvertent
adjective
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