careful
UK/ˈkɛːfl̩//ˈkɛɹfəl/
careful adjective: taking care; attentive to potential danger, error or harm; cautious.
Adjective
careful (comparative more careful, superlative most careful)
- Taking care; attentive to potential danger, error or harm; cautious.
- He was a slow and careful driver.
- Be very careful (while) trekking through the jungle.
- Conscientious and painstaking; meticulous.
- They made a careful search of the crime scene.
- At the same time, we were cognisant that careful scholars should never solely rely on their own impressionistic observations, and, that our own impressions were inexact and not capable of being quantified.2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 7
- Full of care or grief; sorrowful, sad.
- Full of cares or anxiety; worried, troubled.
- Where through long watch, and late daies weary toile, / She soundly slept, and carefull thoughts did quite assoile.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
careful meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
careful in Hindi
- cautious
- सावधान sāvdhān, सतर्क satark
- meticulous
- सावधान sāvdhān, सतर्क satark, सचेत sacet
careful in Tamil
- கவனமாக, நாசூக்காக, எச்சரிக்கையாக, ஜாக்கிரதையாக
careful in Marathi
- cautious
- सावध sāvadh
careful in Urdu
- cautious
- ساودھان sāvdhān, سترک satark
More languagesFewer languages
- careful in Bengali
- সতর্ক śotork, সাবধান śabodhan
- careful in Telugu
- పదిలము padilamu, భద్రము bhadramu
- careful in Malayalam
- ശ്രദ്ധാപൂർവ്വമായ
- careful in Kannada
- ಎಚ್ಚರಿಕೆಯ, ಜಾಗರೂಕನಾದ, ಕಾತರವಿರುವ, ಆತಂಕವುಳ್ಳ
- careful in Punjabi
- ਸੋਝਾ sojhā
- careful in Gujarati
- સાવધાન sāvdhān
- careful in Sanskrit
- सावधान sāvadhāna, सतर्क satarka
- careful in Assamese
- সাৱধান xawodhan
- careful in Nepali
- पक्का pakkā
- careful in Tagalog
- maingat
- careful in Arabic
- حَذِر ḥaḏir, دَقِيق daqīq
- careful in Malay
- hati-hati
- careful in Indonesian
- hati-hati, teliti, cermat
- careful in Persian
- محتاط mohtât, دقیق daqiq
Examples of careful in a sentence
- Be careful when you pet that dog on the head; it may bite.
- Be careful, he has a hot temper and may take it out on you.
- Be careful what you say to him: he’s a bit of a gossip.
Synonyms of careful
Antonyms
Forms of careful
| comparative | more careful |
|---|---|
| superlative | most careful |
| alternative form (obsolete) | carefull |
Origin of careful
From Middle English careful, from Old English carful; equivalent to care + -ful.
Words formed from careful
Phrases with careful
Questions about careful
- What does careful mean?
- Careful means taking care; attentive to potential danger, error or harm; cautious.
- What is careful in Hindi?
- Careful in Hindi is सावधान (sāvdhān), सतर्क (satark), सचेत (sacet). See Careful meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is careful?
- Careful is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce careful?
- Careful is pronounced /ˈkɛɹfəl/ (US).
Words near careful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: careful (page history and authors); careful (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); పదిలము (Telugu) (page history and authors); careful (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); careful (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸੋਝਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); সাৱধান (Assamese) (page history and authors); पक्का (Nepali) (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-careful.ogg.
Cite this entry: “careful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/careful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.