Sporadic means happening now and then, with no pattern. Sporadic outbreaks, sporadic gunfire, sporadic attendance.
The absence of pattern is the point — sporadic is not the same as occasional, which merely counts; sporadic says you cannot predict when. In medicine, sporadic cases are isolated ones with no link between them. Note that the Greek means scattered, from a word for sowing seed.
1adjectivesporadicHappening now and then, with no pattern.
“There was sporadic gunfire in the city during the night.”
synonyms: intermittent, irregular
sporadic is a quality of irregularity.
Greek sporadikos means scattered, from spora, a sowing. Spore and diaspora come from the same scattering.
Ancient Greek
σποραδικός
Medieval Latin
sporadicus
English, today
sporadic
Built from
From Medieval Latin sporadicus (whence also French sporadique, Italian sporadico, Spanish esporádico), from Ancient Greek σποραδικός, from σποράς (“scattered, dispersed”), from σπορά, σπόρος (“a sowing [of seed]”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA