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
Julie Appleby, Miami Herald, 12 Apr. 2025
Downsides exist and can undercut your efforts by inadvertent misuse or overuse of this technique.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 9 Apr. 2025
Jokes aside, a reduction in overall consumerism may well be an inadvertent silver lining to the economic cloud, similar to what happened during the COVID pandemic.
—Saleem H. Ali, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025
Legal experts have said the inadvertent sharing of national defense information with The Atlantic reported added to the group would likely violate the Espionage Act, while the chat’s disappearing message function would also run afoul of public records laws.
—Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill, 5 Apr. 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 19 Apr. 2025.
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inadvertent
adjective
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