intermittent
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.happening sometimes but not all the time, or not in a regular way.
adj.occurring at irregular intervals; not continuous or steady.
Simple“The radio signal was intermittent because of the heavy storm.”
In context“The patient reported intermittent chest pains that occurred primarily during periods of high stress but vanished during rest.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
adj.used to describe a stream or lake that is dry for part of the year.
adj.denoting a watercourse or body of water that flows or contains water only during certain seasons or after rainfall.
Simple“The intermittent stream only flows during the rainy spring months.”
In context“Ecologists studied the unique biodiversity found in the intermittent pools, which remain dry for six months of the year.”
- 03 C2 Proficiency
n.an old word for a fever that goes away and then comes back.
n.a disease or fever, such as malaria, characterised by intervals of normal temperature between paroxysms.
Simple“The old medical book described the treatment for a dangerous intermittent.”
In context“Nineteenth-century physicians often struggled to distinguish between various types of intermittents before the discovery of specific pathogens.”
Synonymsague
“People living in flats with intermittent water supply have had to be prepared for sudden outages.”
“While idling is intermittent and usually of short duration, estimates of the cumulative effect are staggering.”
From Middle French intermittent, from Latin intermittens (“sending between”), from prefix inter- (“among, on”) + mittens (“sending”), from mittere (“to send”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.