intermittent
adj.adj. stopping and starting again many times rather than happening continuously. You use this to describe things like rain or a weak internet signal.
adj. occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady. Often used to describe physical phenomena or patterns of behavior.
The rain was intermittent throughout the afternoon.
The technician explained that the intermittent internet connection was likely caused by a loose cable in the basement.
Despite the intermittent nature of the data transmission, the research team managed to reconstruct a coherent map of the seafloor over several months of observation.
From Middle French intermittent, from Latin intermittens (“sending between”), from prefix inter- (“among, on”) + mittens (“sending”), from mittere (“to send”).
Often used predicatively after linking verbs like 'be' or 'become', or attributively before nouns like 'rain', 'noise', or 'fever'.