erratic

1 lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern so far your effort to land a summer job has been very erratic Synonyms aimless, arbitrary, catch-as-catch-can, desultory, random, haphazard, helter-skelter, hit-or-miss, scattered, slapdash, strayRelated Words accidental, casual, chance, chancy, contingent, fluky (also flukey), fortuitous, inadvertent, incidental, lucky, unconsidered, unintended, unintentional, unplanned, unpremeditated; scattershot, shotgun; irregular, odd, sporadic, spot; directionless, objectless, purposeless; indiscriminate, unsystematic; undirected; disorderly, disorganized; undiscriminating, unselectiveNear Antonyms established, fixed, regular, set, stable, steady; constant, continuous, even; arranged, managed, orchestrated, ordered, planned; aware, conscious, deliberate, purposeful, thoughtful, willful (or wilful)Antonyms methodical (also methodic), nonrandom, orderly, organized, regular, systematic, systematized

2 lacking in steadiness or regularity of occurrence because of your erratic attendance at practice, you're in danger of being cut from the team Synonyms aperiodic, casual, catchy, choppy, discontinuous, episodic (also episodical), fitful, intermittent, irregular, occasional, spasmodic, spastic, sporadic, spotty, unsteadyRelated 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, volatileNear Antonyms changeless, equable, even, stable, stationary, uniform; unchanging, unvarying, unwavering; methodical (also methodic), orderly, systematic; unrelenting, unremittingAntonyms constant, continuous, habitual, periodic, regular, repeated, steady

3 not staying constant business at the fast-food restaurant has been so erratic lately that the manager never knows how much staff to have on hand Synonyms changing, uneven, fluctuating, irregular, unequal, unstable, unsteady, varyingRelated Words capricious, changeable, changeful, choppy, fickle, fluid, inconsistent, inconstant, mercurial, mutable, uncertain, unsettled, variable, volatileNear Antonyms regularAntonyms changeless, constant, stable, steady, unchanging, unvarying

4 different from the ordinary in a way that causes curiosity or suspicion the key to the code was the erratic punctuation the killer used Synonyms bizarre, bizarro, cranky, crazy, curious, eccentric, odd, far-out, funky, funny, kinky, kooky (also kookie), offbeat, off-kilter, off-the-wall, outlandish, out-of-the-way, outré, peculiar, quaint, queer, queerish, quirky, remarkable, rum [chiefly British], screwy, spaced-out, strange, wacky (also whacky), way-out, weird, weirdo, wildRelated Words aberrant, abnormal, addlepated, flaky; extraordinary, fantastic (also fantastical), freak, freakish, freaky, phantasmagoric (or phantasmagorical), phenomenal; atypical, rare, singular, uncommon, uncustomary, unique, unusual, unwonted; conspicuous, notable, noticeable, outstanding, prominent, salient, striking; atrocious, outrageous, shocking; crotchety, idiosyncratic, nonconformist, nonmainstream, out-there, unconventional, unorthodox; baffling, bewildering, confounding, mystifying, perplexing, puzzlingNear Antonyms average, commonplace, everyday, garden, normal, ordinary, prosaic, routine, run-of-the-mill, standard, typical, unexceptional, unremarkable, usual, workaday; conformist, conservative, conventional; expected, familiar, knee-jerk, predictable; common, customary, frequent, habitual, regular, wonted