How to Use inattention in a Sentence

inattention

noun
  • Many traffic accidents are the result of driver inattention.
  • They lost several potential clients through their inattention to detail.
  • For much of her life, the young woman was known to have episodes of inattention.
    — Lisa Sanders, M.d., New York Times, 13 Oct. 2022
  • In real life the car would run off the road with that degree of inattention.
    — Rich Heldenfels, Boston Herald, 16 Mar. 2025
  • The baby was full-term and died due to neglect and inattention.
    — Mary Kilpatrick, cleveland, 23 Jan. 2020
  • This was at once a consequence of public inattention and a cause of it.
    — Stacy Mitchell, The Atlantic, 20 June 2017
  • In the end, his sheer inattention to your pleasure was what made the decision for you.
    — Addie Citchens, New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Both reports bore down hard on the programs’ inattention to phonics.
    — Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 1 Sep. 2022
  • Stretches of strong play are marred by long streaks of inattention and low energy, a death knell for such a young group.
    — Michael Shapiro, Chron, 15 Jan. 2023
  • The first and most important sign of overload is simply inattention to alerts.
    — Nitin Kumar, Forbes, 27 Jan. 2023
  • Hark, by the author Sam Lipsyte, is a satire of a world plagued by inattention.
    — Kate Cray, The Atlantic, 13 Nov. 2020
  • The dogs' paws and underbellies picked up burrs along the way, but that's due to inattention by their owners.
    — Karen Martin, Arkansas Online, 30 Aug. 2020
  • But that inattention is precisely what one group of hackers is trying to exploit.
    — Michael Kan, PCMAG, 13 Sep. 2024
  • This inattention shows that the anti-immigrant stance at large in this country is largely racist.
    — Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 16 Aug. 2019
  • Ayaz isn’t the only researcher trying to crack the puzzle of student inattention.
    — Mary Mann, Slate Magazine, 11 May 2017
  • A little inattention in quarter three can cancel out a stellar first half and dash hopes for the last quarter of glory.
    — Paul Cappiello, The Courier-Journal, 19 July 2024
  • But the mayor must also take a hand, so time and inattention took their toll; the summer of Floyd was the final straw.
    — The Editors, National Review, 21 June 2021
  • If late decision is due to inattention, then perhaps there is a case for more lopsided results.
    — Dylan Scott, Vox, 22 Oct. 2018
  • During a moment of inattention, an enormous wave of insane people rolled over us and buried us deep beneath them.
    — Ian Frazier, New Yorker, 15 June 2026
  • But the nation’s inattention to the home care sector means that the size and scope of the crisis is impossible to gauge.
    — Shefali Luthra, USA TODAY, 14 Sep. 2020
  • The lack of tangible progress for Alzheimer’s patients isn’t an issue of inattention.
    — Kevin Hrusovsky, Quartz, 14 Nov. 2019
  • Bloomberg's campaign may see the relative inattention in Arizona so far as an opening for him.
    — Ronald J. Hansen, azcentral, 25 Nov. 2019
  • Also gone is most of a tech sector whose growth was neglected as the old stewards died off, replaced by land hustlers and inattention.
    — Jon Talton, The Seattle Times, 25 May 2017
  • Darin died at the age of 37, though some of this seems to have been brought on by is inattention to his necessary medication regime.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 22 Apr. 2011
  • But the Republicans certainly were not helped by their inattention to process.
    — Max Bloom, National Review, 1 Aug. 2017
  • What the modern Crockpot brought to the kitchen — or more accurately to the woman in the kitchen — was inattention.
    — Olivia Potts, Longreads, 17 Nov. 2022
  • The floundering of both Muncie and Gary schools is directly due to voter inattention with their school boards.
    — Indystar, Indianapolis Star, 20 May 2018
  • Paul seized a moment of inattention from the attacker to dial 911, police said.
    — Allie Raffa, NBC News, 30 Oct. 2022
  • Such judgments are the regrettable consequence of French’s inattention to the novel’s use of irony.
    — Howard W. French, The New York Review of Books, 22 Dec. 2022
  • As a dramatist, Baker wants the audience to become aware of its own habits of attention and inattention.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'inattention.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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