American English pronunciation

How to pronounce erratic

IPA transcription: [ɪ'ɹætɪk]

Hear “erratic” pronounced

[ɪ'ɹætɪk]

Quality: 0.99

[ɪ'ɹætɪk]

Quality: 0.98

[ɪ'ɹætɪk]

Quality: 0.98

Adjective

  • liable to sudden unpredictable change

    “erratic behavior”

    “fickle weather”

    “mercurial twists of temperament”

    “a quicksilver character, cool and willful at one moment, utterly fragile the next”

  • having no fixed course

    “an erratic comet”

    “his life followed a wandering course”

    “a planetary vagabond”

  • likely to perform unpredictably; ; ; - Osbert Lancaster

    “erratic winds are the bane of a sailor”

    “a temperamental motor; sometimes it would start and sometimes it wouldn't”

    “that beautiful but temperamental instrument the flute”

Usage examples

  • Other times it can be very erratic.
  • He went into an erratic skid before hitting a light pole and overturning.
  • Glacial features along the trail include kettles, potholes, eskers, and glacial erratics.
  • At first his progress was slow and erratic.
  • Go-Toba used such techniques consistently and often, whereas Teika's use was more erratic.
  • It may also be used of large glacial erratics moved by natural forces.
  • Powell was hospitalized in New York after months of increasingly erratic behavior and self-neglect.
  • Its motion was erratic, because of the single cylinder, and it produced insufficient steam.
  • Train frequencies were also erratic, with higher frequencies on some days that on other.
  • These returns highlighted Van Bunge's erratic bowling style.