oavsiktligt

Oavsiktligt is a Swedish adverb meaning unintentionally or accidentally. It describes actions or events that occur without deliberate intention. The related adjective form is oavsiktlig, used to characterize a noun as unintentional, while the noun form oavsiktlighet refers to the quality or state of being unintentional.

In everyday Swedish, oavsiktligt is used to indicate that something happened by accident rather than by choice or design. It often appears together with uppsåt, the concept of intent or purpose; phrases like utan uppsåt (without intent) are common in both informal and formal contexts. In legal, administrative, and media language, distinguishing between uppsåt and oavsiktlighet helps clarify responsibility and liability.

Typical examples include: Det var oavsiktligt av mig att glömma mötet, meaning it happened unintentionally on my part. Det hände oavsiktligt. En oavsiktlig handling kan leda till olika konsekvenser beroende på sammanhanget. The expression en oavsiktlig miss, while less common, is understood as an unintentional mistake or fault.

Etymology traces oavsiktligt to avsikt (intention) with the negating prefix o-, forming a word that denotes lack of aim or deliberate purpose. The suffix -ligt marks it as an adverb, while the corresponding -lig form adjectives describe nouns.

See also: oavsiktlighet (unintentionality) and oavsiktligheter, the plural or related terms. The everyday distinction between oavsiktligt and utan uppsåt is similar to how many languages separate accidental from deliberate actions.