fitful
Syllables: fit·fulUK/ˈfɪtf(ʊ)l//ˈfɪtf(ə)l/
fitful adjective: characterized by fits (convulsions or seizures).
Adjective
fitful (comparative more fitful, superlative most fitful)
- Characterized by fits (convulsions or seizures).
- Duncane is in his Graue:
After Lifes fitfull Feuer, he ſleepes well,
Treaſon ha's done his worſt: not Steele, not Poyſon,
Mallice domeſtique, forraine Leuie, nothing,
Can touch him further.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Duncane is in his Graue:
- Characterized by sudden bursts of activity with periods of inactivity in between; intermittent, irregular, unsteady.
- His breathing was fitful.
- Troubled by her unfinished work, she fell into a fitful sleep.
- Synonyms:
- capricious, changeable, changing, erratic, shifting, spasmodic, snatchy, broken, ragged, catchy
- Antonyms:
- unfitful, amaranthine, solid, ceaseless, constant, continual, continuate, continuous, dreich, endless
fitful meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
fitful in Hindi
- characterized by sudden bursts of activity with periods of inactivity in between — see also intermittent, irregular
- अशांत aśānt
fitful in Tamil
- விட்டுவிட்டு இயங்கு
fitful in Urdu
- چنچل
fitful in Malayalam
- കൈകാലിട്ടടിക്കുന്ന, ഇളക്കമുള്ള, പെട്ടെന്നു വികാരം കൊള്ളുന്ന, കോച്ചുള്ള
More languagesFewer languages
- fitful in Vietnamese
- đứt quãng
Examples of fitful in a sentence
- The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that— was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door,—a thin one, with fixed blinds inserted, in place of upper panels.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Musket”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers...
- So fitful has Britain’s economy been that any good news is understandably snatched at.2012 October 27, “The economy: Don’t say ‘green shoots’: Britain emerges from its second recession in four years”, in The Economist...
Synonyms of fitful
5 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of fitful
| comparative | more fitful |
|---|---|
| superlative | most fitful |
Origin of fitful
From fit (“convulsion, seizure; sudden burst of activity”) + -ful (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, with the sense of being full of, tending to, or thoroughly possessing the quality expressed by the noun).
Words formed from fitful
Questions about fitful
- What does fitful mean?
- Fitful means characterized by fits (convulsions or seizures).
- What is fitful in Hindi?
- Fitful in Hindi is अशांत (aśānt). See Fitful meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use fitful in a sentence?
- The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that— was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door,—a thin one, with fixed blinds inserted, in place of upper panels.
- What part of speech is fitful?
- Fitful is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce fitful?
- Fitful is pronounced /ˈfɪtf(ʊ)l/ (UK).
Words near fitful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fitful (page history and authors); fitful (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fitful (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fitful (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-fitful.ogg.
Cite this entry: “fitful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fitful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.