INADVERTENTLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does inadvertently mean? 

• INADVERTENTLY (adverb)
  The adverb INADVERTENTLY has 1 sense:

1. without knowledge or intention

  Familiarity information: INADVERTENTLY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INADVERTENTLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Without knowledge or intention

Synonyms:

inadvertently; unknowingly; unwittingly

Context example:

he unwittingly deleted the references

Antonym:

advertently (in a careful deliberate manner)

Pertainym:

inadvertent (happening by chance or unexpectedly or unintentionally)

 Context examples 

This shows that when we engage in rewarding activities like eating, we are inadvertently affecting our biological rhythms.

(Neurons That Control Brain's Body Clock Identified, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Inadvertently, they also may have found a potent inflammation therapy against bacterial and viral diseases.

(Natural lipid acts as potent anti-inflammatory, National Institutes of Health)

Device packaging that has been opened purposefully or inadvertently thus exposing the device to the outside environment and rendering it unsterile or unclean (e.g. a broken seal or ripped or torn packaging).

(Device Packaging Compromised Evaluation Result Evaluation Result, Food and Drug Administration)

His old dog, Pilot, lay on one side, removed out of the way, and coiled up as if afraid of being inadvertently trodden upon.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She was extremely gracious to Peggotty, except when I inadvertently called her by that name; and, strange as I knew she felt in London, appeared quite at home.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For example, in Bangladesh, deep wells were introduced in the Ganges Delta to draw water clear of bacterial and viral pathogens, but this inadvertently led to exposure to toxic metals.

(Experts warn of cardiovascular risk from heavy metal pollution, University of Cambridge)

Twenty years ago, researchers from Washington State University made the accidental discovery that the now infamous plastics ingredient known as bisphenol A or BPA had inadvertently leached out of plastic cages used to house female mice in the lab, causing a sudden increase in chromosomally abnormal eggs in the animals.

(Reproductive Problems Reported In Lab Mice after BPA Replacements in Plastics, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

For example, MMP12, a protein previously associated with lung disease was found to be also related to heart disease – however, whereas higher levels of MMP12 are associated with lower risk of lung disease, the opposite is true in heart disease and stroke; this could be important as drugs developed to target this protein for treating lung disease patients could inadvertently increase the risk of heart disease.

(Scientists create ‘genetic atlas’ of proteins in human blood, University of Cambridge)

I beg pardon—Ladies, Gentlemen, and Children—I must apologize, I had inadvertently omitted a considerable section of this audience (tumult, during which the Professor stood with one hand raised and his enormous head nodding sympathetically, as if he were bestowing a pontifical blessing upon the crowd), I have been selected to move a vote of thanks to Mr. Waldron for the very picturesque and imaginative address to which we have just listened.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Of course I answered this note by going down with the boy to pay the money, where I found Mr. Micawber sitting in a corner, looking darkly at the Sheriff “s Officer who had effected the capture. On his release, he embraced me with the utmost fervour; and made an entry of the transaction in his pocket-book—being very particular, I recollect, about a halfpenny I inadvertently omitted from my statement of the total.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)