What does ignore mean?
Ignore is a common English verb meaning to pay no attention to someone or something. It is often used for disregarding instructions, warnings, messages, or another person's presence. Depending on context, it can suggest deliberate indifference: ignoring a colleague's message is impolite, while ignoring an irrelevant notification is routine. Ignore is also used in formal and technical writing, as in “ignore the preceding comment.” The verb has a slightly blunt force, but it remains neutral when describing a rule or an instruction that is not followed. Its usefulness lies in its clear distinction between acknowledging something and deliberately declining to act on it. The word also has a memorable history: it comes through French from Latin, where it originally meant “not to know.”
verbTo pay no attention to someone or something; to disregard or deliberately refuse to acknowledge it.
- To disregard instructions, rules, requests, warnings, or other information.
- To pay no attention to someone, especially by deliberately avoiding acknowledging them.
- To overlook or fail to take account of something in a particular context.
"She tried to speak, but he ignored her and continued reading."
"Please do not ignore the safety instructions."
"He ignored her greeting and walked past without a word."
Ignore began with the Latin idea of “not knowing,” so its modern sense of deliberate inattention is only the latest chapter in its history.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does ignore come from?
Ignore entered English from French ignorer in the early 16th century. French ignorer came from Latin ignorare, meaning “not to know,” formed from the prefix in- (“not”) and gnarus (“knowing”). The same Latin root also underlies English words such as ignorant and ignorance.
Related word forms
How ignore is actually used
The word is generally neutral in formal, technical, and everyday contexts, but ignoring a person can sound deliberately rude or dismissive. It is normally transitive and takes a person, thing, instruction, or message as its object.
Easily confused with ignore
To ignore something is to pay no attention to it, whereas to be ignorant of something is not to know or understand it.