Irregardless

Why you should avoid using "irregardless"

This is an entry on my list of Common Errors in English Usage. Visit the main page for direct links to additional entries.

Even though irregardless is commonly used in informal English, even by some educated people, it is considered a nonstandard word; since –less is a negative suffix, the negative prefix ir- is redundant. Use regardless instead.

Irregardless Regardless of my warnings, he insisted on rushing forward into battle, shouting “Leeeeeerooooy Jeeeenkins!”

Although some traditional rules of usage are obsolete, arbitrary, and not worth trying to save, this is one that I think is worth following: it’s logical, the word regardless is more concise and conveys the same meaning, and most educated writers know and follow it.

Related Resources

Common Errors in English Usage: Errors in diction and idiom commonly made by native speakers of English

List of Common Errors in English Usage (PDF): Printable version of the complete list

Common Grammar Errors: A list of common errors in grammar (topics like subject-verb agreement and parallelism) as distinct from usage

List of Common Errors in English Usage: PDF version

© 2006, 2008, and 2019 C. Brantley Collins, Jr.