Desultory

//ˈdɛs.əlˌtɔɹ.i// adj

adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another, without order, planning, or rational connection; lacking logical sequence.

    "He wandered round, cleaning up in a desultory way."

  2. 2
    Out of course; by the way; not connected with the subject.

    "I made a desultory remark while I was talking to my friend."

  3. 3
    Disappointing in performance or progress.

    "Near-synonyms: half-assed, halfhearted"

  4. 4
    Leaping, skipping or flitting about, generally in a random or unsteady manner. obsolete
Adjective
  1. 1
    marked by lack of definite plan or regularity or purpose; jumping from one thing to another wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
disconnectedpurposelessaberrantaberrativeadriftafloat

Example

More examples

"Most of the others also lit their pipes and a desultory conversation ensued."

Etymology

From Latin dēsultōrius (“hasty, casual, superficial”), from dēsultor (“a circus rider who jumped from one galloping horse to another”), from dēsiliō (“jump down”), from dē (“down”) + saliō (“jump, leap”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.