fitful
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- fitfully adverb
- fitfulness noun
Etymology
Origin of fitful
Explanation
An adjective that sounds a little like what it means, fitful means stopping and starting, on-again off-again, switching suddenly. I had a fitful night's sleep: I woke up several times throughout the night. A fit is a disturbance that happens without warning, like a tantrum, tremor, or spasm. If something is fitful, it's "full of fits." A night at the opera is a night of fitful pleasures: the arias are cool, but the rest of the show is boring. I've made only fitful progress trying to lose weight, because I lose only a few pounds at a time, and they almost always come right back: my progress is fitful because it comes in "fits and starts."
Vocabulary lists containing fitful
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Grade 12, List 2
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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.
No other Victorian poet could have brought off such a fitful and obsessive work; no one else could have sustained such music and emotion for more than 100 pages.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026
As treatment progresses, if the once fitful sleeper finds they’re sleeping longer and more easily, they extend their time in bed to match their newfound sleep ability.
From Slate • Jul. 19, 2025
A dry wind was already stirring when the sun rose over Pacific Palisades on Tuesday, fitful gusts whipping palm fronds seaward and making eucalyptus limbs creek and groan.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2025
It caps weeks of fitful indirect negotiations and sets the stage for a tense period that could determine the course of the war, already in its seventh week.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 22, 2023
On the morning of a school field trip, Danny woke from a fitful dream.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
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.
