haphazard

Definition

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

Etymology

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

Example Sentences

• "Do not make such haphazard changes to the settings; instead, adjust the knobs carefully, a bit at a time."
• "The haphazard efforts of a few, working here and there without concert, easily spent themselves in attaining results far short of what were needed."
• "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."