Patchy vs Erratic - What's the difference?
patchy | erratic |
Full of, or covered with, patches; abounding in patches.
Not constant or continuous; intermittent or uneven .
unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent
Deviating from the common course in opinion or conduct; eccentric; odd.
(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:
Anything that has erratic characteristics.
As adjectives the difference between patchy and erratic
is that patchy is full of, or covered with, patches; abounding in patches 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.patchy
English
Adjective
(er)- patchy clouds
erratic
English
Alternative forms
* erratick, erraticke, erratique (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- Henry has been getting erratic scores on his tests: 40% last week, but 98% this week.
- erratic conduct
Derived terms
* erraticallyAntonyms
* consistentNoun
(en noun)- 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.