Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

could care less

/kəd kɛ(ə)ɹ ˈlɛs/

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.16 in modern English

Syllables: could -care -less
IPA: /kəd kɛ(ə)ɹ ˈlɛs/

18

Scrabble Score

13

Letters

3

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To not care at all; to have no concern or interest; to be apathetic.

American usage

Example Sentences

"Farmers knew that dead fish made plants go better. They could care less about why that happened. Scientists could not sleep until they found out why."
"We do work [...] to develop some strength and testing standards so that the industry can be assured that safe products are being produced. The person who is doing a knockoff could care less about that, and so they will just produce the product with virtually no field or laboratory testing and ship it out."
"As someone who lives 30 miles away as the crow flies [...] from New York City, I could care less that New York City or New York State has a sense of jurisdiction. I would want to know whoever is most capable would be able to step in without any jurisdictional battle."
"Maybe it wasn't only time to move away from a job that was killing her spirit, but from people who could care less about her as a person, who saw her only as the good girl from next door, the one who would never do anything to upset anyone, who totally underestimated her."

Etymology

An alteration of couldn’t care less (which is first attested slightly earlier), either: * by deliberate irony, or * by hyponegation, perhaps influenced by forms such as “as if I could care less”, “no one could care less”, and “to know little (or nothing) and care less”.

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /kəd kɛ(ə)ɹ ˈlɛs/
British English: /kəd kɛə ˈlɛs/

Usage

American usage

Inflected Forms

could have cared less (past, perfect)

Synonyms

couldn't care less not give a tinker's cuss not give a tinker's damn

Questions

How do you pronounce could care less?: The recorded pronunciation is /kəd kɛ(ə)ɹ ˈlɛs/.
What does could care less mean?: To not care at all; to have no concern or interest; to be apathetic.
Where does could care less come from?: An alteration of couldn’t care less (which is first attested slightly earlier), either: * by deliberate irony, or * by hyponegation, perhaps influenced by forms such as “as if I could care less”, “no one could care less”, and “to know little (or nothing) and care less”.

How to pronounce could care less

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