as in sporadic
lacking in steadiness or regularity of occurrence
a night of fitful sleep did not leave me feeling well rested the next morning
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Recent Examples of fitful
Muller has spent the past 12 years experiencing the ups and downs, fitful starts and stops her sport has endured since first splashing on the Swiss hockey scene as a 15-year-old by scoring her nation’s first bronze-medal clinching goal at the 2014 Sochi Games.
—
John Wawrow, Chicago Tribune, 21 Feb. 2026
When Leo Lewis O’Neil’s documentary, Slauson Rec, about the actor’s fitful attempt to host a theater workshop premiered at Cannes in 2025, audiences were uncomfortable bearing witness to LaBeouf’s rage.
—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 17 Feb. 2026
Signs of fitful progress appear Despite increasingly authoritarian governments in many parts of Asia and the rest of the world, there are some encouraging signs.
—Elaine Kurtenbach, Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2026
Already, 10 times more water evaporates off Arizona’s arid landscape and fitful rivers.
—Shi En Kim, AZCentral.com, 26 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for fitful
John Wawrow, Chicago Tribune, 21 Feb. 2026
When Leo Lewis O’Neil’s documentary, Slauson Rec, about the actor’s fitful attempt to host a theater workshop premiered at Cannes in 2025, audiences were uncomfortable bearing witness to LaBeouf’s rage.
—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 17 Feb. 2026
Signs of fitful progress appear Despite increasingly authoritarian governments in many parts of Asia and the rest of the world, there are some encouraging signs.
—Elaine Kurtenbach, Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2026
Already, 10 times more water evaporates off Arizona’s arid landscape and fitful rivers.
—Shi En Kim, AZCentral.com, 26 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for fitful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fitful
Adjective
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After being deported from Sweden and moving to Bangkok in 2015, Drain Gang’s Thaiboy Digital has leaned harder into the cult rap crew’s love for rave electronics than any other member, chasing highs in lucid dreams to compensate for sporadic meetups with the boys.—
Nathan Evans,
Pitchfork,
12 May 2026
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Residents say efforts to remove the plant have largely been limited to small-scale manual clearing by fishermen and sporadic pilot efforts by authorities, with no effective large-scale solution in place.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
12 May 2026
Adjective
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The concentrated schedule created a sense of occasion and urgency that is diluted when games are spread across Thursdays, occasional Wednesdays, Friday holidays, Saturday nights, Sunday mornings and multiple streaming-exclusive windows.—
Bobby Burack OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
14 May 2026
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This is a play that takes young people and their problems seriously, while incorporating occasional humor into the script and direction.—
Emily McClanathan,
Chicago Tribune,
14 May 2026
Adjective
-
According to Costigan and McIntyre, one 4-hour USB-charge should be good for seven to eight hours of runtime in high-intensity intermittent mode, or approximately 14 hours in the lowest-intensity steady output mode.—
Ben Coxworth
May 15,
New Atlas,
15 May 2026
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But 2026 has marked a new nadir for one of the world’s oldest civilizations, with the government’s massacre of anti-regime protestors in January and widespread destruction from the United States’ and Israel’s intermittent war.—
Andrew Gilbert,
Mercury News,
13 May 2026
Adjective
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The Sun were consistently among the WNBA’s top-performing franchises on and off the court before the league’s sudden exponential growth.—
Emily Adams,
Hartford Courant,
13 May 2026
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Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families, said as a result of these sudden deployments, some spouses have had to cut back on their work hours or quit their jobs to hold down the home front.—
Juliana Kim,
NPR,
13 May 2026
Adjective
-
By the time officers arrived, the situation had escalated into what officials described as an active shooter incident, with the suspect walking down the middle of Memorial Drive and firing in an erratic manner as traffic came to a halt.—
Greg Wehner,
FOXNews.com,
12 May 2026
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In a video about an erratic Uber driver, a recognizable dynamic—awkward small talk, impatience to set off—escalates into a life-threatening one.—
Alex Barasch,
New Yorker,
11 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fitful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fitful. Accessed 17 May. 2026.
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