sporadically
Americanadverb
-
every now and then; at irregular intervals in time.
Ox-eye sunflowers bloom sporadically throughout the summer.
-
here and there; in scattered locations.
Little candles, placed sporadically among the chapel pews, lit up people’s faces.
Etymology
Origin of sporadically
First recorded in 1675–85; sporadic ( def. ) + -ally ( def. )
Explanation
Something that happens sporadically doesn't occur with regularity, but rather periodically or occasionally. You might meet sporadically with your cousins, usually on minor holidays like Memorial Day or Flag Day. Sporadically comes from the Greek word sporadikos, meaning scattered, with the root word spora, which means sowing. Imagine sowing seed by scattering it, and you'll get the hit-or-miss sense of sporadically. There is no pattern to the frequency of an event that occurs sporadically. Working sporadically is hard because you lack a steady income and never know when you'll be busy, but traveling sporadically can be fun.
Vocabulary lists containing sporadically
The Glass Castle
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Bridge to Terabithia
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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.
Students like Wang sporadically sign up for competitions, but a lack of funding and exposure means few adopt it as a full-time career, leaving it facing an existential struggle.
From Barron's • Jun. 28, 2026
The review found that reports of great white sharks in Spanish Mediterranean waters have continued to appear over the decades, even if only sporadically.
From Science Daily • Jun. 26, 2026
Though we got together only sporadically, it became clear that we were using clothing to hide in very similar ways.
From Salon • Jun. 12, 2026
The public’s on-again, off-again interest kept Smart’s disappearance in the news sporadically, but a podcast called “Your Own Backyard,” begun in 2019 by Chris Lambert, shone a new spotlight on the cold case.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
Starting in 1807, Jefferson’s name began to come up sporadically in Adams’s letters to Rush.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
