sporadic

American  

[spuh-rad-ik] / spəˈræd ɪk /

Sometimes sporadical

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.

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sporadic British  

/ spəˈrædɪk /

adjective

1. occurring at irregular points in time; intermittent

   sporadic firing

2. scattered; isolated

   a sporadic disease

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Other Word Forms

• sporadicalness
  noun
• sporadicity
  noun
• sporadism
  noun
• sporadically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of sporadic

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; see spore, -ic

Explanation

Sporadic is an adjective that you can use to refer to something that happens or appears often, but not constantly or regularly. The mail carrier comes every day but the plumber's visits are sporadic — he comes as needed. A specialized use of sporadic is to describe a disease that appears only occasionally in random cases, and is therefore not an epidemic. Mostly, though, you'll hear this word used to describe anything that happens occasionally, like your family's sporadic trips to visit your distant cousins in Ohio or the sporadic bake sales your science club sponsors when it's low on funds. English borrowed the word sporadic from Greek sporadikós, "scattered."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sporadic

There is little data on the extent of the fraud cases, because reporting is so sporadic and scattered across dozens of agencies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

“This sporadic continuance of the conflict appears to be the state of play.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

Residents at the time reported sporadic outages after the troops left.

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

Ukraine's first successful drone strikes reached the Russian capital in spring 2023, although they were sporadic and rarely involved more than a handful of drones.

From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026

Lunch was now out of the question, so was breakfast; and having pap ’n vleis became a sporadic, chancy luxury.

From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane

Related Words

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