Word.ws English Dictionary

care

UK/kɛə//kɛɚ/

care noun: close attention; concern; responsibility.

Noun

care (countable and uncountable, plural cares)

  1. Close attention; concern; responsibility.
    • Care should be taken when holding babies.
    • I thank thee for thy care and honest pains.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. Worry.
    • I don’t have a care in the world.
    • Yes, heaven, I’m in heaven / And the cares that hung around me through the week / Seem to vanish like a gambler’s lucky streak1956, Irving Berlin, “Cheek to Cheek”
  3. (uncountable) Maintenance, upkeep.
    • dental care
    • Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Corinthians 11:28
  4. (uncountable) The treatment of those in need (especially as a profession).
    • The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10
  5. (UK, uncountable) The state of being cared for by others.
    • in care
  6. The object of watchful attention or anxiety.
    • Right sorrowfully mourning her bereaved cares.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 17
  7. (obsolete) Grief, sorrow.
    • More health and happiness betide my liege / Than can my care-tuned tongue deliver him!1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
    • Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Verb

care (third-person singular simple present cares, present participle caring, simple past and past participle cared)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To be concerned (about), to have an interest (in); to feel concern (about).
    • She doesn’t care what you think.
    • I don’t care, I’m still going.
  2. (formal, intransitive, polite) To want, to desire; to like; to be inclined towards or interested in.
    • Would you care for another slice of cake?
    • Would you care to dance?
  3. (broadly, informal, intransitive) To be affected by, to treat as relevant for a subsequent course of action.
    • An event aggregator facilitates a fire-and-forget model of communication. The object triggering the event doesn’t care if there are any subscribers. It just fires the event and moves on.2013, Addy Osmani, Developing Backbone.js Applications, page 175
  4. (intransitive) (with for) To look after or look out for.
    • Young children can learn to care for a pet.
    • He cared for his mother while she was sick.
  5. (Appalachia, intransitive) To mind; to object.
    • After introducing herself, the therapist then asked the patient if it would be all right to do the exercises which the doctor had ordered for her. The patient would response, "Well, I don't care to." For several days, the therapist immediately left the room and officially recorded that the patient...2006, Grace Toney Edwards, JoAnn Aust Asbury, Ricky L. Cox, A Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region, Univ. of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 108

Proper noun capitalized: Care

Care (plural Cares)

  1. A surname.

care meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

care in Hindi

close attention, concern or responsibility
परवाह parvāh
treatment of those in need
देखभाल dekhbhāl

care in Tamil

close attention, concern or responsibility
அக்கறை akkaṟai

care in Marathi

care, concern, anxiety, solicitude
काळजी kāḷajī
care, concern, heed
पर्वा parvā
care
चिंता cintā

care in Urdu

care, concern
پروا parvā
care, support, custody
رعایت ri'āyat
More languagesFewer languages
care in Bengali
পরোয়া porōẇa, এহতেমাম ehtemam, চিন্তা cinta, যত্ন jotno
care in Telugu
భద్రము bhadramu, పదిలము padilamu
care in Malayalam
ഉത്തരവാദിത്തം uttaravādittaṁ, ശ്രദ്ധ śraddha, ശുശ്രൂഷ śuśrūṣa
care in Kannada
ಜೋಕೆ jōke, ಕಾಳಜಿ kāḷaji
care in Punjabi
ਸੰਭਾਲ਼ sambhāḷ, ਸੋਝਾ sojhā, ਫ਼ਿਕਰ fikar
care in Odia
ଭଗ bhaga
care in Sanskrit
उपेक्षण upekṣaṇa, सत्कार satkāra
care in Tagalog
pakialam, pag-iingat
care in Arabic
اِهْتِمَام ihtimām, اِهْتَمَّ بِـ ihtamma bi-, عِنَايَة ʕināya, رِعَايَة riʕāya
care in Malay
rawatan, peduli, menjaga
care in Indonesian
perawatan, asuhan, peduli
care in Thai
สน sǒn, สนใจ sǒn-jai, ดูแล duu-lɛɛ, เอาใจใส่ ao-jai-sài
care in Vietnamese
quan tâm, chăm sóc

Examples of care in a sentence

  • I don’t care to hear your opinion.
  • ‘Have a care, Buquet—ghosts like not to be seen or talked about!’1925, Walter Anthony and Tom Reed (titles), Rupert Julian (director), The Phantom of the Opera, silent movie
  • […] What cares these roarers [i.e. thunder] for the name of king?[…]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
  • He suddenly has something to care about beyond causing trouble and makes a dramatic transformation from hell-raiser to gentleman about town.2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”...
  • No longer mind if I go / You pray enough, I might fall / Down, down, down, down, down / Why should I care what happens to me? / Why should I care what happens to me?2019, Aries, “Amy's Grave”, in Welcome Home:

All 40 example sentences with care

Synonyms of care

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of care

Forms of care

Noun
pluralcares
Verb
third-person singular presentcares
present participlecaring
past participlecared
pastcared
second-person singular present (archaic)carest
second-person singular past (archaic)caredst
third-person singular present (archaic)careth
Proper noun
pluralCares

Past tense of care: cared

Plural of care: cares

Origin of care

From Middle English care, from Old English caru, ċearu (“care, concern, anxiety, sorrow, grief, trouble”), from Proto-West Germanic *karu, from Proto-Germanic *karō (“care, sorrow, cry”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeh₂r- (“shout, call”). Cognate with Old Saxon cara, kara (“concern, action”), Middle High German kar (“sorrow, lamentation”), Icelandic kör (“sickbed”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍂𐌰 (kara, “concern, care”). Related also to Dutch karig (“scanty”), German karg (“sparse, meagre, barren”), Latin garriō, Ancient Greek γῆρυς (gêrus). See also chary.

From Middle English caren, carien, from Old English carian (“to sorrow, grieve, be troubled, be anxious, to care for, heed”), from Proto-West Germanic *karōn (“to care”), from Proto-Germanic *karōną (“to care”). Cognate with Old Saxon karōn (“to lament”), Middle High German karen, karn (“to complain, lament, grieve, mourn”), archaic German karen (“to groan, gasp”), Alemannic German karen, kären (“to groan, gasp”), Swedish kära (“to fall in love”), Icelandic kæra (“to care, like”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍂𐍉𐌽 (karōn, “to be concerned”).

Words formed from care

Phrases with care

84 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with care

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about care

What does care mean?
Care means close attention; concern; responsibility.
What is care in Hindi?
Care in Hindi is परवाह (parvāh), देखभाल (dekhbhāl). See Care meaning in Hindi.
How do you use care in a sentence?
I don’t care to hear your opinion.
What part of speech is care?
Care can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce care?
Care is pronounced /kɛə/ (UK).
What is the plural of care?
The plural of care is cares.

Words near care in the dictionary

  1. Cardus
  2. cardware
  3. Cardwell
  4. Cardwellian
  5. cardy
  6. care
  7. care a button
  8. care a fig
  9. care a hoot
  10. care a jackstraw
  11. care a monkey's

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: care (page history and authors); Care (page history and authors); काळजी (Marathi) (page history and authors); رعایت (Urdu) (page history and authors); పదిలము (Telugu) (page history and authors); ಕಾಳಜಿ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਫ਼ਿਕਰ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ଭଗ (Odia) (page history and authors); उपेक्षण (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-care.ogg.

Cite this entry: “care.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/care. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.