Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Characterized by, arising from, or subject to caprice; impulsive or unpredictable.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Characterized by caprice; apt to change opinions suddenly, or to deviate from one's purpose; unsteady; changeable; fickle; subject to change or irregularity: as, a man of a capricious temper.
- Synonyms Freakish, unsteady, fanciful, whimsical, fitful, crotchety, uncertain.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Governed or characterized by caprice; apt to change suddenly; freakish; whimsical; changeable.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Impulsive andunpredictable ;determined bychance ,impulse , orwhim
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason
- adjective changeable
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word capricious.
Examples
-
I have just left Augereau, who was vomiting fire and fury against what he calls your capricious proclamations.
Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon
-
I have just left Augereau, who was vomiting fire and fury against what he calls your capricious proclamations.
-
I have just left Augereau, who was vomiting fire and fury against what he calls your capricious proclamations.
-
Woman is less changeable, but to call her capricious is a stupid insult.
-
One of Trine's would-be selling points is its physics-based puzzles, but history has taught us by now that "physics-based" is often a euphemism for "capricious" - and that's the case here.
-
In “Thoroughbreds and Blackguards,” Burnaugh argues that the sport’s great competitive impediment, and the temptation that renders it uniquely capricious, is the influence of gambling.
-
In “Thoroughbreds and Blackguards,” Burnaugh argues that the sport’s great competitive impediment, and the temptation that renders it uniquely capricious, is the influence of gambling.
-
In “Thoroughbreds and Blackguards,” Burnaugh argues that the sport’s great competitive impediment, and the temptation that renders it uniquely capricious, is the influence of gambling.
-
Still, most of what we ask that dogs learn can only be described as capricious and arbitrary.
-
Still, most of what we ask that dogs learn can only be described as capricious and arbitrary.
tontoino commented on the word capricious
New Products New Products New Products New Products
The website wholesale for many kinds of fashion ,
http://www.soozone.com
Many colors available .
Delivery in 5 - 7 days
come on,join us!
June 11, 2011
kingparton commented on the word capricious
You're as capricious today as a young woman who needs to get married and has no suitor.
Maxim Gorky, "Recollections of Leo Tolstoy"
November 19, 2011
Socrates commented on the word capricious
Every town-gate and village taxing-house had its band of citizen-patriots, with their national muskets in a most explosive state of readiness, who stopped all comers and goers, cross-questioned them, inspected their papers, looked for their names in lists of their own, turned them back, or sent them on, or stopped them and laid them in hold, as their capricious judgment or fancy deemed best for the dawning Republic One and Indivisible, of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death.
Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
February 24, 2013