noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The action of hurriedly moving hither and thither. countable, obsolete, rare, uncountable
2. 2
   Digression. countable, figuratively, rare, uncountable
3. 3
   Ratiocination; step-by-step philosophical reasoning, as opposed to intuition. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

aberrancyaberrationafoot and lightheartedasidebendbias

Etymology

From Latin discursiō, from discurrō (“I run to and fro”); compare the English discurre, discurrent, discursation, and discurse.

Related phrases

hither and thither

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