haphazard

From archaic hap (“chance, luck”) +‎ hazard.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌhæpˈhæz.əd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌhæpˈhæz.ɚd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

haphazard (not comparable)

1. Random; chaotic; incomplete; not thorough, constant, or consistent.

   Synonyms: random, chaotic

   Antonym: systematic

   • 1886, N. H. Egleston, Arbor-Day, Popular Science Monthly, p. 689:

     The haphazard efforts of a few, working here and there without concert, easily spent themselves in attaining results far short of what were needed.

   • 1909, Fielding H. Garrison, Josiah Willard Gibbs and his relation to modern science, Popular Science Monthly, p. 191:

     we assume a gas to be an assemblage of elastic spheres or molecules, flying in straight lines in all directions, with swift haphazard collisions and repulsions, like so many billiard balls.

   • 1912, Robert DeC. Ward, The Value of Non-Instrumental Weather Observations, Popular Science Monthly, p. 129:

     There is a very considerable series of observations — non-instrumental, unsystematic, irregular, "haphazard" if you will — which any one with ordinary intelligence and with a real interest in weather conditions may undertake.

   Do not make such haphazard changes to the settings; instead, adjust the knobs carefully, a bit at a time.

• haphazardly
• haphazardness