Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having no fixed or regular course; wandering.
- adj. Lacking consistency, regularity, or uniformity: an erratic heartbeat.
- adj. Deviating from the customary course in conduct or opinion; eccentric: erratic behavior.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Wandering; having no certain course; roving about without a fixed destination.
- Deviating from the proper or usual course in opinion or conduct; eccentric.
- Moving; not fixed or stationary: applied to the planets as distinguished from the fixed stars.
- In medicine, irregular; changeable; moving from point to point, as rheumatic or other pains, or appearing at indeterminate intervals, as some intermittent fevers.
- In geology, relating to or explanatory of the condition and distribution of erratics. See II., 2.
- n. One who or that which has wandered; a wanderer.
- n. Specifically In geology, a boulder or block which has been conveyed from its original site, probably by ice, and deposited at a distance; an erratic block. See erratic blocks, under I.
- n. An eccentric person.
- In zoology, occurring in an unusual location.
Wiktionary
- adj. unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent
- n. geology A rock moved from one location to another, usually by a glacier.
- n. Anything that has erratic characteristics.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having no certain course; roving about without a fixed destination; wandering; moving; -- hence, applied to the planets as distinguished from the fixed stars.
- adj. Deviating from a wise of the common course in opinion or conduct; eccentric; strange; queer.
- adj. Irregular; changeable.
- n. One who deviates from common and accepted opinions; one who is eccentric or preserve in his intellectual character.
- n. obsolete A rogue.
- n. (Geol.) Any stone or material that has been borne away from its original site by natural agencies; esp., a large block or fragment of rock; a bowlder.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having no fixed course
- adj. likely to perform unpredictably
- adj. liable to sudden unpredictable change
Etymologies
- From Old French erratique, from Latin erraticus. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English erratik, from Old French erratique, from Latin errāticus, from errāre, to wander. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In primaries McCain claimed and denounced the same multiple times, earning the title erratic”
Obama Hits McCain on ‘Say Anything’ Politics - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
“Senator Obama accused McCain of what he called erratic behavior.”
“Murerwa said the shortage of foreign currency had been worsened by what he called the erratic distribution of balance of payment support by the international community.”
“I noticed that they left out one salient bit- the term the Obama team has decided is to be used against Romney is "weird"- in the same way they hung the tag "erratic" on McCain.”
“The parliament's last speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, also a Sunni Arab, stepped down in December after lawmakers criticized what they called his erratic behavior.”
“State Senate Minority Leader John Land, a Democrat, accused Sanford of engaging in "erratic" behavior.”
“And if things are sometimes a little convenient, or seem to happen in erratic collapsing tiers of coincidence, well, that's what fairy tales do.”
“I suppose it could be said, as Michael Gerson has alleged, that the Obama campaign's choice of the word erratic to describe McCain is also an insinuation.”
“And she said she certainly did not use the word, at least she does not remember using the word erratic with police.”
“And I asked them, when you used the word erratic, that's a-- it's got a poisonous connotation there.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘erratic’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Genes
Interesting gene names. Some of these may have changed recently (to something less offensive/funny).
http://www.genenames.org/
tinman, agnostic, dreadlocks, Van Gogh, fruitless, lava lamp, ariadne, cheap date, ken and barbie, I'm not dead yet, I'm not dead yet 2, manic fringe and 1192 more... -
GRE
GRE Vocabs
alacrity, celerity, haste, penitent, prosaic, veracity, paucity, maintain, laconic, pugnacious, disparate, egregious and 13 more...
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words-for-apocalipstick
all your words are belong to me.
sybaritic, cacography, scatterbrain, extravaganza, fenestra, kaleidophone, machination, mudpuppy, saturnalia, Bacchanalia, ersatz, fictile and 58 more...
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Darker Connotations
Deep, deep, dark
penchant, ravenous, rend, rupture, simper, leer, obsession, malady, erratic, asylum, turgid
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Random Words! Add Your Own! :D
Randomness time! Add your own words. ❤
Love, bucket, brigade, actuary, canal, canasta, why is the door open, coconut, stochastic, haphazard, accidental, chance and 38 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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magoosh1
aberration, aboveboard, abysmal, ace, affable, aghast, alacrity, ambiguous, ambivalent, ameliorate, amenable, amiable and 205 more...
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GRE
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abhor, abjure, abrasive, abridge, abstain, acme, activism, adhere, admonish and 195 more...
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practice 2
100 words
momentous, domicile, adroit, ingenious, dexterous, genius, brevity, decorum, propriety, dignity, err, blunder and 91 more...
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old faves
ones I already liked
vacuole, organelle, debauchle, voluptuous, spry, cattywampus, obscure, occlude, occult, celtic, voracious, ardently and 133 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for erratic.
Arthurpod "Except for a large, open circle in the center of the village, the Stonedown looked as erratically laid out as if it had fallen off the mountain not long ago."
Lord Foul's Bane Jul 29, 2012