Meanings
- not comparableUnintentionally; because of an oversight.
'Dear me! I may have inadvertently touched the handle,' said he.
1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine2 more examples
Neven Subotic hooked a volley wide after Ramsey inadvertently headed a Reus free-kick back into the danger zone, and Blaszczykowski was also off target when he met Kevin Grosskreutz's cross.
2013 November 6, Chris Bevan, “Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Arsenal”, in BBC Sportfor the living human, who in grief may share deeply personal data with the commercial entity that owns the bot, but also for the ghost, which might inadvertently reveal a n old family secret from beyond the grave.
2025 March 5, Patricia Clarke, “You and me, we gonna live forever … as avatars, at least”, in The ObserverSynonyms: unawares
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbUnintentionally; because of an oversight.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
- Proto-Italic*n̥-
- Medieval Latinin-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂éd
- Proto-Italic*ad
- Proto-Italic*ad-
- Latinad-
- Proto-Indo-European*wert-
- Proto-Indo-European*wértetor
- Proto-Italic*wertō
- Latinvertō
- Latinadvertō
- Medieval Latinadvertēns
- Medieval Latininadvertēns
- Englishinadvertent
- Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
- Proto-Germanic*līką
- Englishinadvertently
From inadvertent + -ly.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic عَنْ غَيْرِ قَصْدٍ, بِدُونِ قَصْدٍ
- عَنْ غَيْرِ قَصْدٍ (ʕan ḡayri qaṣdin)unintentionally
- بِدُونِ قَصْدٍ (bidūni qaṣdin)unintentionally
Bulgarian по невнимание
- по невнимание (po nevnimanie)unintentionally
Catalan inadvertidament
- inadvertidamentunintentionally
Chinese Mandarin 無意地 /无意地, 無意中 /无意中
- 無意地 /无意地 (wúyì de)unintentionally
- 無意中 /无意中 (wúyìzhōng)unintentionally
- 不經意間 /不经意间 (bùjīngyìjiān)unintentionally
Czech nechtěně
- nechtěněunintentionally
Dutch onopzettelijk, ongewild
- onopzettelijkunintentionally
- ongewildunintentionally
Esperanto senvole, senintence
- senvoleunintentionally
- senintenceunintentionally
Finnish tahattomasti
- tahattomastiunintentionally
French par inadvertance, par mégarde
- par inadvertanceunintentionally
- par mégardeunintentionally
- par erreurunintentionally
German versehentlich, irrtümlich
- versehentlichunintentionally
- irrtümlichunintentionally
- unbeabsichtigterweiseunintentionally
- unabsichtlicherweiseunintentionally
Greek άθελα
- άθελα (áthela)unintentionally
Japanese うっかり, 何気無く
- うっかり (ukkari)unintentionally
- 何気無く (nanigenaku)unintentionally
- 何気に (nanige ni)unintentionally
Polish nieumyślnie, niezamierzenie
- nieumyślnieunintentionally
- niezamierzenieunintentionally
- niechcącyunintentionally
- nieuważnieunintentionally
- przez nieuwagęunintentionally
Portuguese sem querer, inadvertidamente
- sem quererunintentionally
- inadvertidamenteunintentionally
- sem intençãounintentionally
Russian неча́янно, неумы́шленно
- неча́янно (nečájanno)unintentionally
- неумы́шленно (neumýšlenno)unintentionally
- ненаро́ком (nenarókom)unintentionally
- ненаро́чно (nenaróčno)unintentionally
- случа́йно (slučájno)unintentionally
Scottish Gaelic gun fhiosta
- gun fhiostaunintentionally
Slovak nechtiac, neúmyselne
- nechtiacunintentionally
- neúmyselneunintentionally
- omylomunintentionally
Spanish sin querer, burla burlando
- sin quererunintentionally
- burla burlandounintentionally
Swedish oavsiktligt
- oavsiktligtunintentionally
Turkish kazara
- kazaraunintentionally
Ukrainian ненавми́сне, ненавми́сно
- ненавми́сне (nenavmýsne)unintentionally
- ненавми́сно (nenavmýsno)unintentionally
Cite this entry
inadvertently. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inadvertently
“inadvertently.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inadvertently. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “inadvertently,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/inadvertently.
Source: inadvertently on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.