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Fitful vs Erratic - What's the difference?

fitful | erratic |

As adjectives the difference between fitful and erratic

is that fitful is irregular; unsteady; characterized by fits while erratic is unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent.

As a noun erratic is

(geology) a rock moved from one location to another, usually by a glacier.

fitful

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Irregular; unsteady; characterized by fits.
    • His breathing was fitful .
  • *1605 , Shakespeare, Macbeth ,
    • [...] Duncan is in his grave;
    After life's fitful fever he sleeps well;
  • *1851 ,
  • *:The cabin lamp—taking long swings this way and that— was burning fitfully, and casting fitful shadows upon the old man’s bolted door [...]
  • *2012 , The Economist, The economy: Don’t say “green shoots”
  • *:So fitful has Britain’s economy been that any good news is understandably snatched at.

    • Derived terms

    * fitfully * fitfulness

    erratic

    English

    Alternative forms

    * erratick, erraticke, erratique (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent
    • Henry has been getting erratic scores on his tests: 40% last week, but 98% this week.
  • Deviating from the common course in opinion or conduct; eccentric; odd.
    • erratic conduct

    Derived terms

    * erratically

    Antonyms

    * consistent

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (geology) A rock moved from one location to another, usually by a glacier.
  • * 2003 , (Bill Bryson), A Short History of Nearly Everything , BCA 2003, p. 372:
    • The term for a displaced boulder is an erratic , but in the nineteenth century the expression seemed to apply more often to the theories than to the rocks.
  • Anything that has erratic characteristics.

    • Anagrams

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