sporadic
UK/spəˈɹæd.ɪk/
sporadic adjective: (of diseases) occurring in isolated instances; not epidemic.
Adjective
sporadic (comparative more sporadic, superlative most sporadic)
- (of diseases) occurring in isolated instances; not epidemic.
- Rare and scattered in occurrence.
- It was a stodgy, weary display from Mourinho’s team with only sporadic moments when they threatened Salvatore Sirigu’s goal and their manager seemed bewildered afterwards when he tried to explain what had gone wrong.2015 March 12, Daniel Taylor, “Chelsea out of Champions League after Thiago Silva sends 10-man PSG through on away goals”, in The Guardian (London)
- Synonyms:
- episodic
- Exhibiting random behavior; patternless.
- Not belonging to any infinite family; an exception to an otherwise orderly classification.
sporadic meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
sporadic in Tamil
- சிதறலான, தொடர்ச்சியற்ற, அங்கொன்றுமாக, இங்கொன்றும், வெகு சில, இடையிடையான
sporadic in Urdu
- بکھرا, اکا دکا, کبھی کبھار, شاذ
sporadic in Bengali
- rare and scattered in occurrence
- বিক্ষিপ্ত bikkhipto
sporadic in Malayalam
- infrequent, occasional, irregular
- ഒറ്റതിരിഞ്ഞു സംഭവിക്കുന്ന, അങ്ങിങ്ങായി സംഭവിക്കുന്ന, ചിതറിയ, അവിടവിടെ കാണുന്ന, വല്ലപ്പോഴുമുള്ള, കാഥംചിൽക
More languagesFewer languages
- sporadic in Kannada
- ಆಕಸ್ಮಿಕ, ವಿರಳ, ಅಲ್ಲಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಯುವ, ಒಮ್ಮೊಮ್ಮೆಯ
- sporadic in Punjabi
- ਵਿਰਲਾ virlā
- sporadic in Nepali
- स्पोराडिक
- sporadic in Tagalog
- manaka-naka
- sporadic in Indonesian
- sporadis
Examples of sporadic in a sentence
- Some viruses, such as norovirus, cause sporadic outbreaks of gastroenteritis.
- Retinoblastoma has two distinct variants, an inherited “familial” form and a sporadic form.
- Quite possibly these northern lords maintained sporadic trade with Guayaquil in pre-Hispanic times.
Synonyms of sporadic
Forms of sporadic
| comparative | more sporadic |
|---|---|
| superlative | most sporadic |
Origin of sporadic
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]”).
Words formed from sporadic
Phrases with sporadic
Words that rhyme with sporadic
Questions about sporadic
- What does sporadic mean?
- Sporadic means (of diseases) occurring in isolated instances; not epidemic.
- What is sporadic in Tamil?
- Sporadic in Tamil is சிதறலான, தொடர்ச்சியற்ற, அங்கொன்றுமாக. See Sporadic meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is sporadic?
- Sporadic is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce sporadic?
- Sporadic is pronounced /spəˈɹæd.ɪk/ (UK).
Words near sporadic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sporadic (page history and authors); sporadic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sporadic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sporadic (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); sporadic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਵਿਰਲਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); sporadic (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-sporadic.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sporadic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sporadic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.