sporadic

[ spuh-rad-ik ]

adjective

1. (of similar things or occurrences) appearing or happening at irregular intervals in time; occasional:

   sporadic renewals of enthusiasm.

   Antonyms: continuous

2. appearing in scattered or isolated instances, as a disease.
3. isolated, as a single instance of something; being or occurring apart from others.

   Synonyms: unconnected, separate

4. occurring singly or widely apart in locality:

   the sporadic growth of plants.

sporadic

/ spəˈrædɪk /

adjective

1. occurring at irregular points in time; intermittent

   sporadic firing

2. scattered; isolated

   a sporadic disease

Derived Forms

• spoˈradically, adverb
• spoˈradicalness, noun

Other Words From

• spo·rad·i·cal·ly adverb
• spo·rad·i·cal·ness noun
• spo·ra·dic·i·ty [spawr-, uh, -, dis, -i-tee], spo·ra·dism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sporadic¹

First recorded in 1680–90; from Medieval Latin sporadicus, from Greek sporadikós, equivalent to sporad- (stem of sporás “strewn,” akin to sporá “sowing, seed”) + -ikos adjective suffix; spore, -ic

Word History and Origins

Origin of sporadic¹

C17: from Medieval Latin sporadicus, from Greek sporadikos, from sporas scattered; related to Greek speirein to sow; see spore

Example Sentences

Also, heat consistency can be a bit sporadic depending on the temperature outside.

From Popular-Science

Orders are sporadic — sometimes four or five come in one night, sometimes just one per week.

From Eater

Dating during the pandemic has been pretty sporadic for him, too.

From Washington Post

Looking up Spector’s bylined stories over the decades that mention Fauci, one finds that the pattern of their contact appears more sporadic than this book and its marketing material suggest.

From Washington Post

There have only been sporadic instances of outdoor transmission.

From Outside Online

This is where the sporadic and hectic handling of the romance in the movies fails.

From The Daily Beast

The chanting—so much a part of protests here for the past 100-plus days—was sporadic through Monday night.

From The Daily Beast

I left Lebanon in June 2012, but we kept in sporadic touch via Facebook.

From The Daily Beast

Sporadic riots and fires did break out later during the festival.

From The Daily Beast

Since then there have been a few sporadic accounts of what happened.

From The Daily Beast

Then a silence ensued, broken at first by sporadic and staccato remarks, then becoming as dense as the silences of the night.

From Project Gutenberg

Then sporadic rumours began to creep about, and the atmosphere became charged.

From Project Gutenberg

In the Third Culture Epoch there was found “copper, with sporadic appearance of low percentage of tin.”

From Project Gutenberg

Three times the old blood-feud had broken into sporadic outbursts, and three men had been shot.

From Project Gutenberg

The other two are genuinely new creations, if we except certain sporadic beginnings that occur in the transitional culture.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• desultory
• fitful
• infrequent
• intermittent
• irregular
• isolated
• occasional
• random
• rare
• scattered
• spotty