What does "scattershot" mean?

Covering a broad range in a random and unsystematic way.

What is a synonym for "scattershot"?

Common synonyms include: all over place, all over the place, scattergun, undiscriminating.

Scattershot

adj

adj ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Covering a broad range in a random and unsystematic way.
"They were appalled by his idea of making a spy service out of a scattershot collection of Wall Street brokers, Ivy League eggheads, soldiers of fortune, ad men, news men, stunt men, second-story men, and con men."

Adjective

1
covering a wide range in a haphazard way wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

all over place all over the place scattergun undiscriminating

Example

More examples

"They were appalled by his idea of making a spy service out of a scattershot collection of Wall Street brokers, Ivy League eggheads, soldiers of fortune, ad men, news men, stunt men, second-story men, and con men."

Etymology

From scatter + shot.

More for "scattershot"

Synonyms Sentences Pronunciation Translate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonyms See usage examples Check pronunciation Browse writing guides

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