Erratic

How to spell erratic

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce erratic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does erratic mean?

1. adjectiveNot even or regular in pattern or movement; unpredictable and inconsistent.

Erratic in a sentence

• His erratic driving made the other commuters nervous.

• The old laptop has an erratic battery that drains without warning.

Where does erratic come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb errare, which literally meant 'to wander' or 'to stray off the path', and from it came the adjective erraticus, describing something that roams without a fixed course. English adopted it in the late 1300s, by way of Old French, originally to describe planets that seemed to wander irregularly across the sky compared with the fixed stars. Over time the sense broadened from physical wandering to any behaviour or pattern that is unpredictable and inconsistent. The very same errare root sits inside the familiar words 'error', 'errand', and 'aberration', all of which carry that original notion of going astray. Remembering the doubled r of 'error' helps fix the spelling, since erratic keeps the same double r before the single t.

How the word is built

• errat- (from Latin errare: to wander, stray)
• -ic (adjective suffix)