carefully
- 1In a manner that shows care and attention; attentively and cautiously.
He carefully packed the fragile glasses into the box.
The driver navigated the flooded road carefully, watching for hidden dips.
Similarcautiously, gingerly, attentively, warily
Oppositecarelessly, recklessly
Note
The everyday sense has deep roots: Old English already had ċearfullīċe, 'carefully, diligently,' formed like careful plus -ly. Besides caution with fragile things, it often signals deliberate intent. To say someone 'carefully avoided the subject' means they steered around it on purpose. It sits comfortably before the verb or after its object, and it compares as more carefully, most carefully.
- 2In a thorough, painstaking manner that attends conscientiously to every detail.
The accountant carefully reconciled every entry in the year-end ledger.
He carefully labeled each specimen before filing it in the archive.
Similarmeticulously, painstakingly, thoroughly, conscientiously
Oppositecarelessly, sloppily, haphazardly
- 3In a manner full of sorrow or grief, expressing deep sadness.
Note
Here the word keeps an older meaning of care: grief and anxious trouble, not caution. When Edmund Spenser, in The Faerie Queene (1590), describes a mother as 'so carefully dismayd,' he means she is sorrowfully distressed, not cautious. The sense is obsolete. In older verse, check whether sorrow fits better than attention. In present-day writing, the word cannot carry this meaning at all.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with carefully, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.
Origin
From Middle English carfulli, going back to Old English carfullīċe ("carefully, diligently"). It is equivalent to careful plus the ending -ly.