Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use haphazard in a sentence

19 example sentences · adjective, noun, adverb

Haphazard means random; chaotic; incomplete; not thorough, constant, or consistent. Example: “Do not make such haphazard changes to the settings; instead, adjust the knobs carefully, a bit at a time.”

Examples of haphazard by meaning

adjectiveRandom; chaotic; incomplete; not thorough, constant, or consistent.

  • Do not make such haphazard changes to the settings; instead, adjust the knobs carefully, a bit at a time.
  • we assume a gas to be an assemblage of elastic spheres or molecules, flying in straight lines in all directions, with swift haphazard collisions and repulsions, like so many billiard balls.1909, Fielding H. Garrison, “Josiah Willard Gibbs and his relation to modern science”, in Popular Science Monthly, p. 191
  • There is a very considerable series of observations — non-instrumental, unsystematic, irregular, "haphazard" if you will — which any one with ordinary intelligence and with a real interest in weather conditions may undertake.1912, Robert DeC. Ward, “The Value of Non-Instrumental Weather Observations”, in Popular Science Monthly, p. 129

nounSimple chance, a random accident, luck.

  • Economics depends on fickle human nature , its changeable tastes and the varying states of culture and the haphazards of progress .1951, William Russell White, Leadership, volume 2, page 1616

More sentences with haphazard

  • Why is the order of graphical characters in the PETSCII table so seemingly haphazard?2014, Nick Montfort et al., 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 225. From the entry pet
  • Copulas provide an example of the haphazard evolution of quantitative finance.2011, Julian Shaw, “Chapter 16: Julian Shaw”, in Richard R. Lindsey, Barry Schachter, editors, How I Became a Quant: Insights from 25 of…. From the entry copula
  • Words are misunited; and words are broken apart, often, apparently, at haphazard.1905 April-June, Robert Burkitt, “A Kekchí Will of the Sixteenth Century”, in American Anthropologist, volume 7, number 2, page 272. From the entry misunite
  • Twelve-foot snow drifts still cover windows.¶ Buffalo’s slow, haphazard plowing and response has also drawn the ire of county leaders.2022 December 27, Brianna Sacks, “Buffalo blizzard fuels racial and class divides in polarized city”, in The Washington Post, archived…. From the entry ire
  • Generally, land claims had been treated on an ad hoc and haphazard basis, without any systemic absorption much less systematic response.2011, P. G. McHugh, Aboriginal Title: The Modern Jurisprudence of Tribal Land Rights. From the entry kick into the long grass
  • This is most frequently caused by haphazard and irregular nappings.1993, Thomas T. Yoshikawa, Elizabeth Lipton Cobbs, Kenneth Brummel-Smith, Ambulatory geriatric care, page 552. From the entry napping
  • Even keysmash, that haphazard mashing of fingers against keyboard to signal a feeling so intense that you can't possibly type real words, has patterns.2019, Gretchen McCulloch, Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Riverhead Books, →ISBN, page 6. From the entry keysmash
  • Republicans will have their work cut out for them trying to shift blame to Democrats for their own erratic, haphazard and incoherent process.2018 January 18, Jennifer Rubin, “How the Republicans are blowing their blame game”, in The Washington Post. From the entry have one's work cut out for one
  • Mad for abstracting patterns and images from the masonry, at first the hues and linear lay-up of the stone wall appeared haphazard as nature.2009, Mathew Kinsella, The California Tales: A Novel, →ISBN. From the entry scansion
  • Over the last few years he had made a haphazard living skippering yachts for day-trippers or as an odd-job man in the quiet winter months.2008 May 31, Elizabeth Day, Graham Keeley, “My father, RD Laing: 'he solved other people's problems - but not his own'”, in The Observer…. From the entry odd-job man
  • This excursion of Johnson’s was therefore safe enough and though his survey work there was rather haphazard, he was not censured for crossing the frontier.[1977, John Keay, Explorers of the Western Himalayas, 1820-1895, published 1996, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 202. From the entry Xaidulla
  • It had been haphazard, that screwery.1969, Geoffrey Wolff, Bad Debts, page 62. From the entry screwery
  • It starts a story at haphazard, generally long before the beginning, rambles on inconsequentially and tails off, leaving loose ends hanging about, without a conclusion.1928, W. Somerset Maugham, Ashenden, Vintage, published 2000, page v. From the entry inconsequentially
  • But in my young mind, nothing was haphazard, and certain songs that came over the car radio became fundamental parts of the resonating soundtrack of my youth.2026 March 7, Daphne A. Brooks, Blackstar Rising and the Purple Reign: The Sonic Afterlives of David Bowie and Prince, Duke University…. From the entry soundtrack
  • Bony rocks jut up from the water, forming a haphazard, leapful path, a path that looks like a twisted spine, to the bluff on the other side.2004, The South Dakota Review, page 55. From the entry leapful

Meaning of haphazard

  1. adjective Random; chaotic; incomplete; not thorough, constant, or consistent.
  2. noun Simple chance, a random accident, luck.
  3. adverb Haphazardly.

Full definition of haphazard

Questions about haphazard in a sentence

How do you use haphazard in a sentence?
Haphazard is used as an adjective, noun and adverb. For example: “Do not make such haphazard changes to the settings; instead, adjust the knobs carefully, a bit at a time.”
What is a short sentence with haphazard?
“It had been haphazard, that screwery.”
What does haphazard mean?
Haphazard means random; chaotic; incomplete; not thorough, constant, or consistent.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: haphazard (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use haphazard in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/haphazard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.