neglect

/nɪˈɡlɛkt/

neglect verb: to fail to care for or attend to something.

Verb

neglect (third-person singular simple present neglects, present participle neglecting, simple past and past participle neglected)

(transitive) To fail to care for or attend to something.
- to neglect duty or business; to neglect to pay debts
- I hope
  My absence doth neglect no great designs.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
Synonyms:

let slide
(transitive) To omit to notice; to forbear to treat with attention or respect; to slight.
- to neglect strangers
Synonyms:

disregard
(transitive) To fail to do or carry out something due to oversight or carelessness.
- A friend of mine who runs an intellectual magazine was grousing about his movie critic, complaining that though the fellow had liked The Godfather (page 58), he had neglected to label it clearly as a masterpiece.1972 December 29, Richard Schickel, “Masterpieces underrated and overlooked”, in Life, volume 73, number 25, page 22
Synonyms:

fail, forget
(transitive) To ignore for the sake of simplifying calculations without significantly affecting accuracy.
- We can neglect this term, as it approaches zero in the limit anyway.
- This problem says to neglect air resistance.

Noun

neglect (countable and uncountable, plural neglects)

The act of neglecting.
The state of being neglected.
Habitual lack of care.
- Fifteen participants argued that the neglect of discourse on relationships had major implications for the ability of adolescents to acquire courtship skills and maintain relationships. This neglect means that the students acquire knowledge and skills through the media and by observing and imitating...2025 May 14, Carmit-Noa Shpigelman, Gal Hodara Hassan, ““The System Sweeps it Under the Rug”: Educational Staff’s Perspectives on Romantic Relationships Among Autistic Adolescents”, in Journal of...

neglect meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

neglect in Hindi

fail to care for: अवहेला avhelā, अवहेलना avhelnā
omit to notice; slight; disregard: अवहेलना avhelnā
act of neglecting: उपेक्षा upekṣā
state of being neglected: उपेक्षित upekṣit

neglect in Tamil

அசட்டைசெய், சட்டை செய்யாதிரு, புறக்கணி, கண்டுங்காணாமல் இருத்தல், அவமதிப்பு, அலட்சியம்

neglect in Bengali

neglect, disregard, contempt: উপেক্ষা upekkha
neglect, disregard, slight: পরিহার porihar

More languagesFewer languages

neglect in Telugu: అశ్రద్ధ aśraddha
neglect in Malayalam: അവഗണിക്കുക, ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുക, കയ്യൊഴിയുക, തഴയുക
neglect in Kannada: ಅಲಕ್ಷ್ಯ, ಅಸಡ್ಡೆ, ನಿರ್ಲಕ್ಷ್ಯ, ಅವಜ್ಞತೆ
neglect in Punjabi: ਅਣਗਹਿਲੀ
neglect in Sanskrit: मृध् mṛdh, उपेक्षा upekṣā, लोप lópa, पीड् pīḍ
neglect in Nepali: पाल्नु pālnu
neglect in Tagalog: pabayaan
neglect in Arabic: أَهْمَلَ ʔahmala, إِهْمَال ʔihmāl
neglect in Thai: ละเลย lá-lɤ̄ɤi, การละเลย kāan-lá-lɤ̄ɤi
neglect in Vietnamese: bỏ lơ, bỏ mặc

Examples of neglect in a sentence

And that, together with the inherent yuckiness of the subject, means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair.2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
Fifteen participants argued that the neglect of discourse on relationships had major implications for the ability of adolescents to acquire courtship skills and maintain relationships.2025 May 14, Carmit-Noa Shpigelman, Gal Hodara Hassan, ““The System Sweeps it Under the Rug”: Educational Staff’s Perspectives on Romantic...

All 40 example sentences with neglect

Synonyms of neglect

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of neglect

Forms of neglect

Verb
third-person singular present	neglects
present participle	neglecting
past participle	neglected
past	neglected
Noun
plural	neglects

Past tense of neglect: neglected

Plural of neglect: neglects

Origin of neglect

The verb is inherited from Middle English neglect, neclect, derived from Latin neglēctus, perfect passive participle of neglegō (“to make light of, disregard, not to pick up”), itself from nec (“not”) + legō (“to pick up, select”). The noun is from neglēctus (“neglect”). First attested in 1460, the noun in 1588.

Words formed from neglect

Words that rhyme with neglect

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about neglect

What does neglect mean?: Neglect means to fail to care for or attend to something.
What is neglect in Hindi?: Neglect in Hindi is अवहेला (avhelā), अवहेलना (avhelnā), उपेक्षा (upekṣā). See Neglect meaning in Hindi.
How do you use neglect in a sentence?: And that, together with the inherent yuckiness of the subject, means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair.
What part of speech is neglect?: Neglect can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce neglect?: Neglect is pronounced /nɪˈɡlɛkt/.
What is the past tense of neglect?: The past tense of neglect is neglected.

Words near neglect in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

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