sporadic

English

Etymology

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]”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /spəˈɹæd.ɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ædɪk

Adjective

sporadic (comparative more sporadic, superlative most sporadic)

1. (archaic) (of diseases) occurring in isolated instances; not epidemic.
2. Rare and scattered in occurrence.
   • 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)‎^[1]:

     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.

3. Exhibiting random behavior; patternless.
4. (mathematics) Not belonging to any infinite family; an exception to an otherwise orderly classification.

Derived terms

• sporadic E layer
• sporadic group

Related terms

• sporadical
• sporadically
• sporadicalness

Translations

rare and scattered in occurrence

• Asturian: esporádicu
• Belarusian: спарады́чны (sparadýčny)
• Bengali: বিক্ষিপ্ত (bn) (bikkhipto)
• Bulgarian: единичен (bg) (ediničen), случаен (bg) (slučaen)
• Catalan: esporàdic
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 零星 (zh) (língxīng), 哩哩啦啦 (zh) (līlīlālā), 偶爾發生的／偶尔发生的 (ǒu'ěr fāshēng de), 無常／无常 (zh) (wúcháng), 散亂／散乱 (zh) (sànluàn)

• Czech: ojedinělý (cs), sporadický
• Danish: sporadisk
• Dutch: sporadisch (nl)
• Finnish: harvinainen (fi), satunnainen (fi), sporadinen (fi)
• French: sporadique (fr)
• Galician: esporádico
• German: sporadisch (de)
• Indonesian: sporadis (id)
• Italian: sporadico (it)
• Japanese: 散発的な (さんぱつてきな, sanpatsuteki na)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sporadisk (no)

• Polish: sporadyczny (pl)
• Portuguese: esporádico (pt), pontual (pt)
• Russian: споради́ческий (ru) (sporadíčeskij), едини́чный (ru) (jediníčnyj), случа́йный (ru) (slučájnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: спорадичан, sporadičan (sh)
• Spanish: esporádico (es)
• Swedish: sporadisk (sv)
• Tagalog: manaka-naka
• Turkish: ara sıra (tr), tek tük (tr)
• Ukrainian: споради́чний (uk) (sporadýčnyj)

exhibiting random behaviour

• Bulgarian: спорадичен (bg) (sporadičen)
• Catalan: esporàdic
• Finnish: satunnainen (fi), hajanainen (fi), sporadinen (fi)
• Spanish: esporádico (es), guadianesco (Spain)
• Ukrainian: споради́чний (uk) (sporadýčnyj)

Anagrams

• caproids, carpoids, picadors

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French sporadique.

Adjective

sporadic m or n (feminine singular sporadică, masculine plural sporadici, feminine and neuter plural sporadice)

1. sporadic

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	sporadic		sporadică		sporadici	sporadice
	definite	sporadicul		sporadica		sporadicii	sporadicele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	sporadic		sporadice		sporadici	sporadice
	definite	sporadicului		sporadicei		sporadicilor	sporadicelor

Related terms

• sporadicitate