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haphazard

UK/(ˌ)hæpˈhæz.əd/US/(ˌ)hæpˈhæz.ɚd/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,867 of 15,258neutral

Haphazard means done with no plan or order. Things put wherever there was room.

It describes arrangements and methods rather than results, so a haphazard collection has grown by accident and a haphazard approach will miss things. It is a mild criticism, suggesting carelessness rather than incompetence. The word is built from hap, an old word for chance, which also gives English happen, happy and perhaps. The adverb haphazardly usually follows a verb like stacked or arranged.

Definitions of haphazard

  1. 1adjectivehaphazardLacking any plan, order or system.C1

    “The files were stored in a haphazard way.”

Where it comes from

From archaic hap + hazard.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Adjectives, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 12 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

haphazard in the wild

  • As put by Brown, "Despite their complexity, ecological systems are not haphazard collections of organisms interacting randomly.

    Macroecology

  • Test cases underlie testing that is methodical rather than haphazard.

    Test case (software)

  • Albeit, Rugby in Malawi has frequently been haphazard, for example, Blantyre RFC once undertook a tour to Mauritius.

    Rugby union in Malawi

  • In this industry quite a few things are haphazard.

    Sweet Talker (film)

  • Sweet Talker is one of the more haphazard projects that has come along.

    Sweet Talker (film)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.