Sporadically

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. Occurring at irregular intervals or in scattered instances rather than consistently or continuously
2. Happening infrequently or at unpredictable times rather than in a regular manner
3. Manifesting intermittently or in isolated instances, without a pattern or regularity

Etymology: Sporadically is a plain formation: the adjective "sporadic" with the adverb ending "-ally" attached. The adjective itself is the more interesting part. It comes from Greek "sporadikos", meaning "scattered" or "dispersed", built on "sporas", "seeds" or "scattering", and it reached English through Latin and Late Latin usage. The Greek root gives us the image behind the word: something that appears here and there, like seeds thrown across a field rather than planted in rows. The ending does its own work. The "-ally" suffix descends from the Latin "-ālis", which passed through Old French and Middle English as "-al", and the adverbial "-ly" comes from Old English "-līċe", a word tied to "līc", meaning "body" or "form", which is also the source of "like". So "sporadically" is, underneath, a description of acting in the manner of something scattered. Taken together, the word describes events that occur without a regular pattern, the seeds of a process falling at unpredictable moments rather than in an orderly sequence.

Synonyms: occasionally, intermittently, irregularly

Antonyms: regularly, constantly, continuously