sporadic

spo·rad·ic

adjective \spə-ˈra-dik\

Definition of SPORADIC

: occurring occasionally, singly, or in irregular or random instances <sporadic protests> <a sporadic disease>

— spo·rad·i·cal·ly \-di-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

Examples of SPORADIC

1. Sporadic cases of the disease were reported.
2. <sporadic loud noises kept startling everyone>
3. The law was indeed tightened, prohibiting the employment of illegal aliens on the valid assumption that removing the magnet of jobs is necessary to stem illegal immigration. But enforcement was sporadic at best, and has now virtually ceased. —Mark Krikorian, National Review, 26 Jan. 2004
4. I left Madras twenty years ago. Two marriages and three children later I am a different man from the one who left. My return visits have been sporadic. But there is great delight in a homecoming. —Abraham Verghese, Atlantic , February 2001
5. The Bronx begins here physically, and it began here historically as well; this was the site of Jonas Bronck's farmhouse. Not much is known about him: he was a Swedish sea captain who was induced to settle the area by the Dutch West India Company. A peace treaty signed at Bronck's house ended years of sporadic but bloody skirmishes between the Dutch and the Weckquasgeeks. —Marcus Laffey, New Yorker, 15 May 2000

Origin of SPORADIC

Medieval Latin sporadicus, from Greek sporadikos, from sporadēn here and there, from sporad-, sporas scattered; akin to Greek speirein to sow — more at sperm

First Known Use: circa 1689

Related to SPORADIC

Synonyms

aperiodic, casual, catchy, choppy, discontinuous, episodic (also episodical), erratic, intermittent, irregular, occasional, spasmodic, spastic, fitful, spotty, unsteady

Antonyms

constant, continuous, habitual, periodic, regular, repeated, steady

Related Words

convulsive, sudden, violent; broken, disconnected, fragmentary, interrupted; aimless, arbitrary, desultory, haphazard, hit-and-miss, hit-or-miss, odd, random, scattered, slapdash, stray; capricious, changeful, changing, flickery, fluctuating, fluid, inconstant, mercurial, mutable, temperamental, uncertain, unpredictable, unsettled, unstable, varying, wavering; changeable, fickle, variable, volatile

Near Antonyms

changeless, equable, even, stable, stationary, uniform; unchanging, unvarying, unwavering; methodical (also methodic), orderly, systematic; unrelenting, unremitting

See Synonym Discussion at infrequent

Rhymes with SPORADIC

balladic, Cycladic, dyadic, faradic, maenadic, monadic, nomadic, tetradic, triadic, Troadic

spo·rad·ic

adjective \spə-ˈrad-ik\   (Medical Dictionary)

Medical Definition of SPORADIC

1

: occurring occasionally, singly, or in scattered instances <sporadic diseases>—compare endemic, epidemic 1

2

: arising or occurring randomly with no known cause <sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease>

—spo·rad·i·cal·ly \-i-k(ə-)lē\ (audio pronunciation) adverb