sporadic
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
happening sometimes, but not regularly or often.
occurring at irregular intervals or only in a few places; having no set plan or order.
Simple“We heard sporadic gunfire in the distance throughout the night.”
In context“The project suffered from sporadic funding, which prevented the team from maintaining a consistent development schedule over the three-year period.”
Synonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
describes a disease that appears in just a few people or places, rather than spreading everywhere.
occurring in isolated instances; not widely diffused or epidemic in nature.
Simple“The doctors reported only sporadic cases of the flu this summer.”
In context“Public health officials monitored the sporadic outbreaks of the virus to ensure they did not coalesce into a full-scale epidemic.”
- 03 C2 Proficiency
describes a mathematical object that does not fit into a regular group or family.
denoting an object that does not belong to any infinite family of similar objects; an exception to a general classification.
Simple“The sporadic groups in mathematics are rare and do not follow the usual patterns.”
In context“The classification of finite simple groups revealed twenty-six sporadic groups that exist outside the four main infinite families.”
Synonyms
“He had only sporadic contact with his daughters as they grew up.”
“Through sporadic radio contact, engineers discovered a problem with some of the spacecraft’s cold gas thrusters used for finer attitude control.”
From Medieval Latin sporadicus (whence also French sporadique, Italian sporadico, Spanish esporádico), from Ancient Greek σποραδικός (sporadikós), from σποράς (sporás, “scattered, dispersed”), from σπορά (sporá), σπόρος (spóros, “a sowing [of seed]”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.