ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsDdesultory
ISEE/SSAThard
desultory
Meaning: lacking a clear plan, purpose, or steady effort
desultory in a sentence
How desultory is used in real sentences:
After a desultory search, they admitted they had no real plan.
Their desultory discussion wandered from budgets to lunch without resolving anything.
“Recovery first appeared desultory: a fern here, a beetle there, with no obvious direction linking them.”
— from the passage The Patient Burn
“Afterward, her conversations in the square were desultory, drifting from medical questions to weather and childhood memories, until Inez asked whether she would stay.”
— from the passage The Case She Carried
“A desultory inquiry in 1864, abandoned after two interviews, had blamed the easiest target; systematic evidence now shows that thrift, not poor craftsmanship, silenced the bell.”
— from the passage The Fault in the Bronze
Synonyms for desultory
Other words for desultory — aimless, random and haphazard — carry the same meaning.
- aimless
- random
- haphazard
Antonyms of desultory
Words that mean the opposite of desultory:
- methodical
- focused
- systematic
Where it comes from
From Latin desultor, a circus rider who jumped from horse to horse.
Word parts
- -ary/-ory — Makes adjectives meaning relating to, or nouns for associated people, things, or places.
desultory: de- (down) + sult (leap) + -ory (relating to)
Memory hook
DESULTORY jumps from one thing to another, like a rider leaping between horses.