ad hoc

See also: adhoc, ad-hoc, and ADHOC

English

Alternative forms

• ad-hoc

Etymology

Learned borrowing from New Latin ad hoc (“to this, for this”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌæd ˈhɒk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌæd ˈhɑk/, /ˌæd ˈhɔk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

ad hoc (comparative more ad hoc, superlative most ad hoc)

1. For a particular purpose.
2. Created on the spur of the moment; impromptu.
   • 2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Over the past 20 years or so, from South America to the Danube basin, ad hoc coalitions of politicians, activists and conscience-stricken billionaires (whose core activities, such as Povlsen’s clothing business, are often less than environmentally friendly), have rewilded millions of acres of mostly failed agricultural and grazing land.

3. (sciences, of a hypothesis) Postulated solely to save a theory from being falsified, without making any new predictions.
   • 2012 December 6, J. Agassi, Science in Flux, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 197:

     Contrary to the traditional condoning of ad hoc hypotheses, and in line with Popper's and Grünbaum's approaches, we see, once an ad hoc hypothesis is introduced we are unhappy about it and try to eliminate it.

4. (networking) Independent of previously instated network structure, like routers or access points.
   • 2007 April 23, Jagannathan Sarangapani, Wireless Ad hoc and Sensor Networks: Protocols, Performance, and Control, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 233:

     An ad hoc network is a group of wireless mobile nodes dynamically forming a temporary network without any fixed infrastructure or centralized administration. The applications for ad hoc networks have grown tremendously with the increase in the use of wireless sensor networks.

Derived terms

• ad hocery
• ad hocism
• ad hocness
• adhocracy
• adhocrat
• adhocratic

 

Translations

for this particular purpose

• Azerbaijani: әd hak (amaca özәl)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 臨時／临时 (zh) (línshí)

• Czech: ad hoc (cs)
• Danish: ad hoc
• Dutch: ad hoc (nl)
• Esperanto: specialcela
• Finnish: ad hoc (fi); tätä tarkoitusta varten, tähän tarkoitukseen
• French: ad hoc (fr)
• Georgian: სპეციალური (sṗecialuri), საგანგებო (sagangebo)
• German: ad hoc (de)
• Greek: επί τούτω (el) (epí toúto)
• Hebrew: אד הוק (he)
• Hindi: तदर्थ (hi) ? (tadarth)
• Hungarian: ad hoc (hu)
• Icelandic: sértækur m, sérsniðinn m
• Indonesian: ad hoc
• Interlingua: ad hoc
• Italian: ad hoc (it)
• Japanese: 臨時 (ja) (rinji), このために (kono tame ni) (literally)
• Korean: 임시 (ko) (imsi)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: taybeti

• Latin: ad hoc
• Norwegian: ad hoc (no)
• Persian: ویژه (fa)
• Polish: ad hoc (pl), dla tego, doraźny (pl) m
• Portuguese: ad hoc (pt)
• Romanian: ad hoc
• Russian: специа́льный (ru) (speciálʹnyj), ад хок (ru) m (ad xok) (rare)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: ad hoc

• Slovak: ad hoc
• Slovene: ad hoc
• Spanish: ad hoc (es)
• Swedish: ad hoc (sv)
• Telugu: andu kosam
• Turkish: ad hoc (tr) (amaca özel)
• Vietnamese: đặc ứng

special — see special

impromptu — see impromptu

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Arabic: حصري, ^{(please verify)} حصريا
• Hindi: ^{(please verify)} ज़रुरत के हिसाब से (zarurat ke hisāb se)

Adverb

ad hoc (comparative more ad hoc, superlative most ad hoc)

1. On the spur of the moment.
2. For a particular purpose.

Synonyms

• ad hocly

Translations

on the spur of the moment

• Finnish: noin vain, siitä vain, tuosta vain
• Greek: αυτοσχεδίως (el) (aftoschedíos)
• Polish: ad hoc (pl)
• Russian: спонта́нно (ru) (spontánno), непроду́манно (ru) (neprodúmanno), произво́льно (ru) (proizvólʹno), случа́йно (ru) (slučájno)

for a particular purpose

• Finnish: jotakin varten, nimenomaisesti, varta vasten (fi)
• Russian: специа́льно (ru) (speciálʹno)
• Ukrainian: спеціа́льний (uk) (speciálʹnyj)

Further reading

• “ad hoc”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• ad hoc, ad-hoc at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.

Anagrams

• choad, choda, Chado-

Finnish

Etymology

From Latin ad hoc.

Adjective

ad hoc (not comparable) (rare)

1. ad hoc (for a particular purpose)

Usage notes

The Finnish term mainly used instead of "ad hoc committee" is työryhmä

Declension

Used only in uninflected form to modify a noun, as in ad hoc -komitea ("ad hoc committee").

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ad hok/, [äd̪ hɔk]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ad ok/, [äd̪ ɔk]

Phrase

ad hoc

1. to this end, for this, to this point, to this.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the Latin phrase ad hoc (“for this”).

Adjective

ad hoc

1. ad hoc

Adverb

ad hoc

1. ad hoc

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the Latin phrase ad hoc (“for this”).

Adjective

ad hoc

1. ad hoc

Adverb

ad hoc

1. ad hoc

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from New Latin ad hoc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈat ˈxɔk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Syllabification: ad hoc

Adverb

ad hoc (not comparable)

1. ad hoc (on the spur of the moment)

Further reading

• ad hoc in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• ad hoc in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ad hoc.

Adjective

ad hoc (invariable)

1. ad hoc (created for a particular purpose)

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ad hoc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌad ˈok/ [ˌað̞ ˈok]
• Syllabification: ad hoc

Adverb

ad hoc

1. ad hoc (for this particular purpose)

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “ad hoc”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28