careful
- 1Giving close attention to what one is doing in order to avoid danger, error, or harm; cautious.
Drivers should be especially careful on mountain roads after dark.
He gave a careful answer, aware that reporters were listening to every word.
UsageOften careful with a thing, careful of a danger, or careful not to + verb: be careful not to slip.
Similarcautious, wary, guarded, prudent
Oppositecareless, reckless, rash
Note
Old English carful was simply care plus -ful, "full of care," and every sense of the word turns on which kind of care is meant. Here care is attention, the watchfulness that keeps a slow and careful driver out of trouble. The same construction once carried something heavier, as in the old "grieving" meaning, where the care was sorrow.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Careful derives from Old English carful, formed from care and -ful. en.wiktionary.org
- The Old English formation literally means full of care. en.wiktionary.org
- Careful formerly meant sorrowful or grieving, with care understood as grief. en.wiktionary.org
- 2Conscientious and painstaking, giving close and thorough attention to every detail; meticulous.
Years of careful research went into the final report.
The restorers were careful with every brushstroke on the old painting.
Similarmeticulous, painstaking, thorough, conscientious, diligent
Oppositecareless, sloppy, slapdash
Note
Where the cautious meaning is about avoiding harm, this one is about getting things right: a careful search, careful scholars, careful research. The noun it modifies usually settles which is meant. A careful driver is wary, but a careful search is thorough. With people, context decides, and a careful scholar is praised for rigor, not for timidity.
- 3Avoiding unnecessary spending and any waste of money, at times so strictly that it shades into stinginess.
Having grown up with very little, he is careful with every dollar he earns.
Her friends call her careful, though when the check arrives some would say tight-fisted.
UsageUsually careful with money. Said of a person, it can be a polite way of calling them stingy.
Similarthrifty, frugal, economical
Oppositeextravagant, wasteful
Less common meanings
- 4Weighed down by worries and anxieties; troubled in mind.
Where through long watch, and late daies weary toile, / She soundly slept, and carefull thoughts did quite assoile.
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneNote
Edmund Spenser's "carefull thoughts" in The Faerie Queene (1590) are anxious ones. After long watch and weary toil she sleeps soundly, and her careful thoughts are cleared away. The care here is worry, which sets it apart from the grieving sense, where the care is sorrow. Both meanings are obsolete, so in a modern sentence careful will be read as cautious.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, first published in 1590. en.wikisource.org
- The exact phrase "carefull thoughts" occurs in the poem; the passage describes her sleeping soundly after prolonged wakefulness and toil, dismissing those thoughts. en.wikisource.org
- Careful means anxious in this passage, and assoile means to clear away or resolve. gutenberg.org
- Care has distinct meanings of worry and sorrow, underlying the two senses discussed. en.wiktionary.org
- Both the sorrowful and anxious senses of careful are obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
- 5Full of grief or sorrow; deeply sad.
Note
A reading trap in older texts: here care means sorrow, so a careful heart is a grieving one, not a watchful one. The meaning has dropped out of use, and in new writing it will simply be misread as caution. It shares its construction with the everyday "cautious" sense; only the kind of care has changed.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- In the historical sorrowful sense, a careful heart means a grieving heart. en.wiktionary.org
- The sorrowful sense is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
- The sorrowful and cautious senses share the construction care + -ful. en.wiktionary.org
Practice
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Origin
Made of "care" and the suffix "-ful", the word was "carful" in Old English and "careful" in Middle English.