sporadic
34
7.0
- adjective
- /spəˈrædɪk/
- Interviews with students showed there was only sporadic teaching or reinforcement.
- the sporadic nature
- sporadic outbreaks
- sporadic disease
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Watch on YouTubeSo in your country, Britain, you had sporadic violence that happened last year.
- So in your country, Britain, you had sporadic violence that happened last year.
- That tends to cause sporadic violence, might be low scale violence.
- My heart rate was sporadic, blood pressure was dropping, constantly having to resuscitate me.
- A few someone get into the base but not near the where we slept, but it was mainly just kind of sporadic fire.
- The chaos and the sporadic sort of rewards make these relationships a very dangerous sort of casino to play in.
- They are only sporadic, the court said.
- Well, there's like it's very sporadic Y sporadically written.
- I give deer light shades of brown, long limbs, very sporadic and bouncy.
- Most stuff it's not gonna be that sporadic and crazy.
Examples
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A mob is building up, and sporadic outbreaks of violence are being reported.
Fiction book (2001) -
The storm caused sporadic power outages, leaving some neighborhoods without electricity for hours.
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Yeah, well, we see it's a little sporadic, perhaps a little nervous.
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- Well, service up here is sporadic at best.
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Is this pain sporadic or constant?
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Did they start to move away and not cover it or did they continue reporting on it In the US, there was sporadic reporting.
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Some of the people had sporadic Parkinson's disease.
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The joint session was both preceded and followed by sporadic demonstrations by students and others.
Academic text (1990) -
In spite of the cease-fire arrangement in March 1992, sporadic and occasionally intense fighting continued.
Academic text (1993) -
Instead, the federal response to erosion has been ad hoc, sporadic, and sometimes inconsistent among competing objectives.
Academic text (1991)
Synonyms
257
2.8
Happening now and then but not often
137
3.5
Spread over a wide area and not close together
91
4.5
Happening rarely and not close to other events
82
6.1
Not regular or predictable and likely to change suddenly
48
4.3
Appearing alone and not near other things in time or place
42
3.5
Happening at no fixed times
36
6.5
Happening sometimes but not all the time
13
4.5
Happening only sometimes and not often
3
7.1
Happening only sometimes and not regularly
3
3.8
Happening sometimes and stopping at other times
1
8.2
Does not happen at regular times or repeat a pattern
1
7.2
Not happening in regular cycles
1
7.6
Happening at irregular times
Antonyms
How Often
Surface Forms
Morphology
sporadic = sporad + ic
Learners cannot reliably derive 'sporadic' from any familiar English base because 'sporad-' is a Greek combining form rather than a standalone modern English word.
Etymology
Sporadic comes from the Greek root spora meaning 'seed' or 'to sow', the same root as spore. Think of seeds scattered here and there — that's why sporadic describes things that happen only now and then or appear in a few separate places.