Mindful

How to spell mindful

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mindful

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mindful mean?

1. adjectiveConscious of, attentive to, or careful about something.

Mindful in a sentence

• The new manager was mindful of the team's heavy workload before assigning more tasks.

• Drivers should remain mindful of cyclists when turning at junctions.

Where does mindful come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a homegrown English compound rather than a borrowing. The first part, 'mind', descends from Old English 'gemynd', meaning memory, thought, or the faculty of remembering, which itself goes back to a Proto-Germanic and ultimately Indo-European root tied to thinking and recalling; the same ancient root lies behind Latin 'mens' (mind) and the word 'mental'. The suffix '-ful' comes from the Old English adjective 'full', and when it was attached to a noun it originally meant quite literally 'full of' that thing, so 'mindful' began life meaning 'full of mind', that is, taking thought or keeping something in remembrance. The word is recorded from the late 1300s with the sense of being attentive or heedful, and for centuries it carried the flavour of 'bearing in mind' a duty or a person. In recent decades it has gained a strong association with conscious, present-moment awareness, partly through the popularity of mindfulness practice. A useful spelling note: like 'careful' and 'helpful', the suffix is a single 'l' even though the word 'full' it came from has two.

How the word is built

• mind (the native English noun for memory and attention)
• -ful (adjective suffix meaning 'full of' or 'characterised by')