haphazard
1 of 2adjective
hap·haz·ard (ˌ)hap-ˈha-zərd 
: marked by lack of plan, order, or direction
a haphazard assemblage of furniture
not … a collection of haphazard schemes, but rather the orderly component parts of a connected and logical whole
F. D. Roosevelt
F. D. Roosevelt haphazard adverb
haphazardly adverb
haphazardness noun
haphazardry
(ˌ)hap-ˈha-zər-drē
noun haphazard
2 of 2noun
: chance sense 1
this little remnant preserved by the haphazard of chance Edith Hamilton
Edith Hamiltontake our principles at haphazard John Locke
John Locke
Did you know?
The hap in haphazard comes from an English word that means "happening," as well as "chance or fortune," and that derives from the Old Norse word happ, meaning "good luck." Perhaps it's no accident that hazard also has its own connotations of luck: while it now refers commonly to something that presents danger, at one time it referred to a dice game similar to craps. (The name ultimately derives from the Arabic al-zahr, meaning "the die.") Haphazard first entered English as a noun (again meaning "chance") in the 16th century, and soon afterward was being used as an adjective to describe things with no apparent logic or order.
Synonyms
Adjective
- aimless
- arbitrary
- catch-as-catch-can
- desultory
- erratic
- helter-skelter
- hit-or-miss
- random
- scattered
- slapdash
- stray
See all Synonyms & Antonyms 
Example Sentences
Adjective We were given a haphazard tour of the city. considering the haphazard way you measured the ingredients, it's a wonder the cookies came out this good
Recent Examples on the Web Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY, 2 Sep. 2022 The images, one taken hours before the explosions and one taken a day after, did not show the haphazard debris of a single blast, but rather what appeared to be three large craters from detonations. Alan Yuhas, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Aug. 2022 Russia also broadcasts its own radio signals, which include air-defense radars, wireless drone-control signals, and wireless military communications, tying together the entire haphazard Russian military campaign. Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 1 Aug. 2022 As with haphazard automation, careless tool consolidation can increase frustration and burnout. Forbes, 1 June 2022 From the 1950s until 2019, the Field Museum’s Native North America Hall was a haphazard collection of everyday Indigenous American items. Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 25 May 2022 The haphazard evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan last year as U.S. troops pulled out of the country left little time to prepare ORR facilities, which are accustomed to housing Central American children and teens. Melissa Sanchez, ProPublica, 26 Mar. 2022 But their data was haphazard and incomplete, largely relying on an anonymous Twitter account called @gundeaths that tweeted local news stories of gun violence. Eric Levenson, CNN, 14 Aug. 2022 Too many collectibles can overwhelm a room and create a chaotic and haphazard atmosphere. San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 July 2022 Sarah Matusek, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Sep. 2022 What, besides a haphazard rehashing of Absolutely Everything Progressives Have Ever Thought Of, is its program? Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 6 Sep. 2022 Environmentalists cheered the approval of bills to reduce planet-warming emissions, but many said the haphazard process created bills with industry-friendly strings attached. Dustin Gardiner, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 Sep. 2022 And from the start, the institution has been dogged by criticism about its haphazard acquisition practices. Brigit Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Aug. 2022 Violist Megan DiGeorgio couldn’t bear her own haphazard collaborations over Zoom, where instrumentalists performed individually listening to only click tracks. Daniel Wu, Washington Post, 19 Aug. 2022 Fuhrman, as before, invests her role with a cold creepiness, but the minimal, haphazard script sticks her with playing Esther as a one-note mascot of terror, somewhere between Freddy Krueger and Leprechaun. Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 17 Aug. 2022 From there, the show jumps between two timelines — one chronicling the six months leading up to JP’s demise, and another tracking the Claffins’ haphazard investigation. Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Aug. 2022 The haphazard release schedule for iOS 16 beta software continues this week, as Apple has followed up the Wednesday, July 27th launch of iOS 16 beta 4 with a Monday launch. Jacob Siegal, BGR, 8 Aug. 2022 See More
Adjective
The haphazard nature of the storage was revealed in Box 10, recovered from the Mar-a-Lago storage room. Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY, 2 Sep. 2022 The images, one taken hours before the explosions and one taken a day after, did not show the haphazard debris of a single blast, but rather what appeared to be three large craters from detonations. Alan Yuhas, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Aug. 2022 Russia also broadcasts its own radio signals, which include air-defense radars, wireless drone-control signals, and wireless military communications, tying together the entire haphazard Russian military campaign. Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 1 Aug. 2022 As with haphazard automation, careless tool consolidation can increase frustration and burnout. Forbes, 1 June 2022 From the 1950s until 2019, the Field Museum’s Native North America Hall was a haphazard collection of everyday Indigenous American items. Hannah Edgar, Chicago Tribune, 25 May 2022 The haphazard evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan last year as U.S. troops pulled out of the country left little time to prepare ORR facilities, which are accustomed to housing Central American children and teens. Melissa Sanchez, ProPublica, 26 Mar. 2022 But their data was haphazard and incomplete, largely relying on an anonymous Twitter account called @gundeaths that tweeted local news stories of gun violence. Eric Levenson, CNN, 14 Aug. 2022 Too many collectibles can overwhelm a room and create a chaotic and haphazard atmosphere. San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 July 2022 Noun
Thousands were evacuated last summer amid haphazard scenes at Kabul Airport. Sarah Matusek, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Sep. 2022 What, besides a haphazard rehashing of Absolutely Everything Progressives Have Ever Thought Of, is its program? Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 6 Sep. 2022 Environmentalists cheered the approval of bills to reduce planet-warming emissions, but many said the haphazard process created bills with industry-friendly strings attached. Dustin Gardiner, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 Sep. 2022 And from the start, the institution has been dogged by criticism about its haphazard acquisition practices. Brigit Katz, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Aug. 2022 Violist Megan DiGeorgio couldn’t bear her own haphazard collaborations over Zoom, where instrumentalists performed individually listening to only click tracks. Daniel Wu, Washington Post, 19 Aug. 2022 Fuhrman, as before, invests her role with a cold creepiness, but the minimal, haphazard script sticks her with playing Esther as a one-note mascot of terror, somewhere between Freddy Krueger and Leprechaun. Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 17 Aug. 2022 From there, the show jumps between two timelines — one chronicling the six months leading up to JP’s demise, and another tracking the Claffins’ haphazard investigation. Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Aug. 2022 The haphazard release schedule for iOS 16 beta software continues this week, as Apple has followed up the Wednesday, July 27th launch of iOS 16 beta 4 with a Monday launch. Jacob Siegal, BGR, 8 Aug. 2022 See More Word History
Etymology
Noun and Adjective
hap entry 1 + hazard
First Known Use
Adjective
1576, in the meaning defined above
Noun
1569, in the meaning defined above
Kids Definition
haphazard
adjective
hap·haz·ard hap-ˈha-zərd
: marked by lack of plan, order, or direction
We took a haphazard route.
haphazard 1 of 2
adjective
as in random
lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern considering the haphazard way you measured the ingredients, it's a wonder the cookies came out this good Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
- random
- scattered
- arbitrary
- erratic
- slapdash
- sporadic
- accidental
- stray
- aimless
- lucky
- desultory
- casual
- irregular
- odd
- contingent
- hit-or-miss
- helter-skelter
- catch-as-catch-can
- scattershot
- unsystematic
- unplanned
- shotgun
- inadvertent
- chance
- fortuitous
- unintentional
- unpremeditated
- purposeless
- chancy
- indiscriminate
- spot
- incidental
- disorganized
- directionless
- unconsidered
- unintended
- undirected
- objectless
- flukey
- disorderly
- unselective
- fluky
- undiscriminating
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- systematic
- orderly
- regular
- methodical
- regular
- organized
- continuous
- steady
- stable
- constant
- nonrandom
- fixed
- methodic
- systematized
- arranged
- established
- deliberate
- purposeful
- even
- planned
- set
- conscious
- thoughtful
- wilful
- aware
- managed
- willful
- ordered
- orchestrated
haphazard
2 of 2adverb
as in randomly
without definite aim, direction, rule, or method shoes were tossed haphazard into the closet Synonyms & Similar Words
- randomly
- haphazardly
- at random
- irregularly
- aimlessly
- erratically
- willy-nilly
- casually
- desultorily
- helter-skelter
- anyway
- arbitrarily
- anywise
- carelessly
- anyhow
- informally
- capriciously
- indiscriminately
- whimsically
- unintentionally
- offhand
- accidentally
- fortuitously
- promiscuously
- inadvertently
- hit or miss
- disjointedly
- unpredictably
- unconsciously
- unwittingly
- offhandedly
- higgledy-piggledy
- fitfully
- intermittently
- disconnectedly
- spottily
- topsy-turvy
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- systematically
- orderly
- methodically
- carefully
- deliberately
- intentionally
- formally
- purposely
- meticulously
- gingerly
- purposefully
- punctiliously
Synonym Chooser
The words casual and random are common synonyms of haphazard. While all three words mean "determined by accident rather than design," haphazard applies to what is done without regard for regularity or fitness or ultimate consequence.
a haphazard collection of rocks
Although the words casual and haphazard have much in common, casual suggests working or acting without deliberation, intention, or purpose.
a casual collector
While the synonyms random and haphazard are close in meaning, random stresses lack of definite aim, fixed goal, or regular procedure.
a random selection of books