haphazard

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adjective

hap·haz·ard (ˌ)hap-ˈha-zərd

: marked by lack of plan, order, or direction

a haphazard assemblage of furniture

not … a collection of haphazard schemes, but rather the orderly component parts of a connected and logical whole—F. D. Roosevelt

haphazard adverb

haphazardly adverb

haphazardness noun

haphazardry

(ˌ)hap-ˈha-zər-drē

noun

haphazard

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noun

: chance sense 1

this little remnant preserved by the haphazard of chance—Edith Hamilton

take our principles at haphazard—John Locke

Did you know?

The hap in haphazard comes from an English word that means "happening," as well as "chance or fortune." Hap, in turn, comes from the Old Norse word happ, meaning "good luck." Perhaps it's no accident that hazard also has its own connotations of chance and luck: while it now refers commonly to something that presents danger, at one time it referred to a dice game similar to craps. (The name ultimately comes from the Arabic word al-zahr, meaning "the die.") Haphazard first entered English as a noun meaning "chance" in the 16th century, and soon afterward was being used as an adjective to describe things with no apparent logic or order.

Choose the Right Synonym for haphazard

random, haphazard, casual mean determined by accident rather than design.

random stresses lack of definite aim, fixed goal, or regular procedure.

a random selection of books

haphazard applies to what is done without regard for regularity or fitness or ultimate consequence.

a haphazard collection of rocks

casual suggests working or acting without deliberation, intention, or purpose.

a casual collector

Examples of haphazard in a Sentence

Adjective We were given a haphazard tour of the city. considering the haphazard way you measured the ingredients, it's a wonder the cookies came out this good

Recent Examples on the Web

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Adjective

Marta González de la Rubia, an archivist at Loewe who gave me a tour of the facility, told me that in the company’s early decades the retention of samples had been haphazard, and that this was especially true with the company’s packaging. —Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 17 Mar. 2025 The vibrations felt more haphazard, with less granular effects, but loud shots were still met with strong motor bumps. —PCMAG, 15 Mar. 2025 But the experiment has aged well, and feels less haphazard with each viewing. —David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 14 Mar. 2025 The California Democrat told reporters at a press conference for the Congressional Black Caucus in Virginia that Trump's policies during his first two months in office were not haphazard but purposeful. —Mark Davis, Newsweek, 14 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for haphazard