Haphazard

//(ˌ)hæpˈhæz.ɚd// adj, adv, noun

adj, adv, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Simple chance, a random accident, luck.

    "You should never talk about your own fingers, and haphazards, to genteel people. You should only talk about agreeable subjects as I do."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Random; chaotic; incomplete; not thorough, constant, or consistent.

    "Do not make such haphazard changes to the settings; instead, adjust the knobs carefully, a bit at a time."

Adjective
  1. 1
    marked by great carelessness wordnet
  2. 2
    dependent upon or characterized by chance wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    Haphazardly.

    ""[...] I suspect that it mostly happens haphazard, though afterwards various noble reasons are invented. About marriage I am cynical.”"

Adverb
  1. 1
    without care; in a slapdash manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
carelesshaphazardlyaboutaccidentalaccidentallyad lib

Example

More examples

"Haphazard eating habits caused the castaway's food supply to be quickly depleted."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

at haphazardhalf-assed

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