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.
Synonyms
Examples of inadvertent in a Sentence
Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 3 Oct. 2024
The detachable also has an education edition that places the tablet portion in a durable case to protect against inadvertent drops.
—Sherri Smith, The Verge, 1 Oct. 2024
Most systems of this kind are trained on pretty much the same data, and consequently, the inadvertent mistakes of exclusion or bias made by one system could be mirrored by the others.
—Vicki Phillips, Forbes, 25 Sep. 2024
Getty Images Nonetheless, consumer advocates had other concerns about the inadvertent costs of Trump’s proposal.
—Annie Nova, CNBC, 24 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for inadvertent 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inadvertent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near inadvertent
Cite this Entry
“Inadvertent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inadvertent. Accessed 8 Oct. 2024.
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inadvertent
adjective
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