Sporadic

 WORD OF THE DAY

sporadic / adjective / spuh-RAD-ik

Definition
: occurring occasionally, singly, or in irregular or random instances

Examples
“Over the decades, what began as sporadic nods to Black campus experiences has grown into more: portrayals that are both authentic and that challenge stereotypes about H.B.C.U. college life.”
— Audra D.S. Burch, The New York Times, 26 May 2022

The law was indeed tightened, prohibiting the employment of illegal aliens on the valid assumption that removing the magnet of jobs is necessary to stem illegal immigration. But enforcement was sporadic at best, and has now virtually ceased.
— Mark Krikorian, National Review, 26 Jan. 2004

Did You Know?
You never know where or when the occasion to use sporadic will pop up, but when it does, sporadic is the perfect choice to describe something that happens randomly or irregularly, often in scattered instances or isolated outbursts.
Sporadic describes the distribution of something across space or time that is not frequent enough to fill an area or period, often in scattered instances or isolated outbursts (as in "sporadic applause").
The word comes from Medieval Latin sporadicus, which is itself derived from Greek sporadēn, meaning “here and there.”
It is also related to the Greek verb speirein (“to sow”), the ancestor from which we get our word spore (the reproductive cell of a fungus, microorganism, or some plants), hinting at the seemingly scattered nature by which such cells spread and germinate.