attentive
Watching and listening carefully.
attentive in a sentence
- The attentive lifeguard never took her eyes off the swimmers in the pool.
- The attentive waiter noticed our empty glasses and refilled them before we even asked.
Try an 11+ style question
Verbal reasoning papers often ask about a word like this.
Which word is closest in meaning to attentive?
- Aalert
- Bsleepy
- Ccareless
- Ddreamy
Show the answer
A: alert. The other three mean the opposite of attentive.
Which word is most nearly opposite in meaning to attentive?
- Acareful
- Bwatchful
- Ccareless
- Dalert
Show the answer
C: careless. The other three mean nearly the same as attentive.
Words that mean something similar
alert, careful, watchful
Words that mean the opposite
careless, sleepy, dreamy
More words about thinking & learning
- authentic: Real and genuine, not fake.
- baffled: So confused that you cannot understand something at all.
- bewildered: Very confused and unsure what is happening.
- blunder: A silly, careless mistake.
- clarify: To make something easier to understand.
- classify: To sort things into groups that are alike.
- competent: Able to do something well enough.
- complex: Made of many parts, and hard to understand or work out.
More words to explore
Sitting the 11+ in Kent, Medway or Buckinghamshire?
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test