Library / English Dictionary

NEGLIGENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances

Synonyms:

carelessness; neglect; negligence; nonperformance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("negligence" is a kind of...):

nonaccomplishment; nonachievement (an act that does not achieve its intended goal)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "negligence"):

dereliction (willful negligence)

comparative negligence ((law) negligence allocated between the plaintiff and the defendant with a corresponding reduction in damages paid to the plaintiff)

concurrent negligence ((law) negligence of two of more persons acting independently; the plaintiff may sue both together or separately)

contributory negligence ((law) behavior by the plaintiff that contributes to the harm resulting from the defendant's negligence)

criminal negligence; culpable negligence ((law) recklessly acting without reasonable caution and putting another person at risk of injury or death (or failing to do something with the same consequences))

neglect of duty ((law) breach of a duty)

dodging; escape; evasion (nonperformance of something distasteful (as by deceit or trickery) that you are supposed to do)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The trait of neglecting responsibilities and lacking concern

Synonyms:

neglect; neglectfulness; negligence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("negligence" is a kind of...):

carelessness; sloppiness (the quality of not being careful or taking pains)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "negligence"):

delinquency; dereliction; willful neglect (a tendency to be negligent and uncaring)

laxity; laxness; remissness; slackness (the quality of being lax and neglectful)

Derivation:

negligent (characterized by neglect and undue lack of concern)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Design could never bring them in each other's way: negligence could never leave them exposed to a surprise; and chance had less in its favour in the crowd of London than even in the retirement of Barton, where it might force him before her while paying that visit at Allenham on his marriage, which Mrs. Dashwood, from foreseeing at first as a probable event, had brought herself to expect as a certain one.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Such was the collection of papers (left perhaps, as she could then suppose, by the negligence of a servant in the place whence she had taken them) which had filled her with expectation and alarm, and robbed her of half her night's rest!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I was so filled with the play, and with the past—for it was, in a manner, like a shining transparency, through which I saw my earlier life moving along—that I don't know when the figure of a handsome well-formed young man dressed with a tasteful easy negligence which I have reason to remember very well, became a real presence to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)