erratic
Unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent.
Adjective
- Unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent.
- Henry has been getting erratic scores on his tests: 40% last week, but 98% this week.
- The V-2's directional system was notoriously erratic. In May 1947, a V-2 launched from White Sands Proving Ground headed south instead of north, missing downtown Juarez, Mexico, by 3 miles. - 2010, Mary Roach, “You Go...
Synonyms: mercurial
- Deviating from normal opinions or actions; eccentric; odd.
- erratic conduct
Origin
From Middle English erratik, erratyk, from Latin errāticus; compare Old French erratique.
Forms
Antonyms
Derived
erratical erratically erraticism erraticity erraticness glacial erratic inerratic knight-erratic nonerratic unerratic
Noun
- A rock moved from one location to another, usually by a glacier.
- The term for a displaced boulder is an erratic, but in the nineteenth century the expression seemed to apply more often to the theories than to the rocks. - 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA,...
- During the last ice-age, massive stones were carried for miles by the scouring glaciers, only to be left, like passengers at the end of the line, when the glaciers retreated. Stranded in their new surroundings with...
- Anything that has erratic characteristics.