carelessness
care·less·ness/ˈkɛɹləsnəs/noun
carelessness is spelled C-A-R-E-L-E-S-S-N-E-S-S: 12 letters and 3 syllables (care·less·ness). It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, carelessness means “Lack of care; the state or quality of being careless” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of carelessness is carelessnesses.
How many letters and syllables are in carelessness?
| Letters | 12: C-A-R-E-L-E-S-S-N-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: care·less·ness |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 35,748th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is carelessness?
Carelessness appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce carelessness?
- US /ˈkɛɹləsnəs/
- UK /ˈkɛələsnəs/
Carelessness has 3 syllables, split care·less·ness in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-carelessness.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of carelessness
- carelessnesses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does carelessness mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Lack of care; the state or quality of being careless.
This accident was caused by carelessness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Carelessness in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense lack of care:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | négligence, incurie |
| German | Unvorsichtigkeit, Leichtsinn |
| Portuguese | descuido, negligência |
| Spanish | descuido, dejadez, desprevención, imprevisión |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.