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Negligence

Law And Justice
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Failure to use the reasonable care expected in a situation, resulting in harm to another person. It is a common basis for civil liability.

Detailed Definition
Negligence occurs when someone fails to act with the care a reasonably prudent person would use, and that failure causes foreseeable injury. Poets may employ it to name harm caused not by cruelty but by inattention, delay, or refusal to protect. The word can deepen poems about abandoned duties, preventable loss, and the painful recognition that what was omitted may matter as much as what was done.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem about a landlord's broken stairway can portray negligence when ignored repairs lead to a tenant's injury; In an ecological poem, a factory's failure to contain toxic waste becomes negligence toward a river and its residents; A parent-speaker may use negligence to distinguish a tragic accident from a preventable harm caused by carelessness; A poet can write of a guard who leaves a gate unlatched, making negligence the quiet cause of a later disaster
Additional Notes
Negligence asks whether someone failed to act as a reasonable person would. Duty, breach, causation, and damages are key elements.
Also Known As
Carelessness
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