desultory
Americanadjective
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lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful.
desultory conversation.
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digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random.
a desultory remark.
adjective
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passing or jumping from one thing to another, esp in a fitful way; unmethodical; disconnected
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occurring in a random or incidental way; haphazard
a desultory thought
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of desultory
1575–85; < Latin dēsultōrius pertaining to a dēsultor (a circus rider who jumps from one horse to another), equivalent to dēsul-, variant stem of dēsilīre to jump down ( dē- de- + -silīre, combining form of salīre to leap) + -tōrius -tory 1
Explanation
If you lack a definite plan or purpose and flit from one thing to another, your actions are desultory. Some people call such desultory wanderings spontaneous. Others call it "being lost." The adjective desultory comes from the word desultor, which was a circus rider who would leap from the back of one galloping horse onto another. From this literal sense of jumping from one thing to another, we get the modern meaning of desultory as jumping between things without a logical purpose.
Vocabulary lists containing desultory
Behave Yourself! Vocabulary for Good, Bad, and Indifferent Conduct
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And Then There Were None
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"Marita's Bargain," Vocabulary from the essay
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
From its desultory beginnings, Random House has grown into a behemoth, one of the industry’s Big Five.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
Biden made a few desultory campaign speeches here and there.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2024
The lobby bar at the town’s only hotel—usually so desultory on non–parents’ weekend weekends that it closed around 8—was jammed with visitors from surrounding states.
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2024
We can certainly imagine a version of “Oppenheimer” that tossed in a few startling but desultory minutes of Japanese destruction footage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
She went into the bedroom, turned back her mattress and took from under it a notebook in which she had kept a desultory diary during her thirteenth year, and a square manila envelope.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
