capricious

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: ca=pri=cious

CIDE DICTIONARY

capricious, a. [Cf. F. capricieux, It. capriccioso.].

 Governed or characterized by caprice; apt to change suddenly; freakish; whimsical; changeable.  [1913 Webster]
"A capricious partiality to the Romish practices."

Syn. -- Freakish; whimsical; fanciful; fickle; crotchety; fitful; wayward; changeable; unsteady; uncertain; inconstant; arbitrary.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

capricious, adj.
1 guided by or given to caprice.
2 irregular, unpredictable.

Derivative

capriciously adv. capriciousness n.

Etymology

F capricieux f. It. CAPRICCIOSO

THESAURUS

capricious

adrift, afloat, agnostic, aimless, alternating, ambiguous, ambitendent, ambivalent, amorphous, arbitrary, at loose ends, brittle, broken, careening, careless, casual, catchy, chancy, changeable, changeful, changing, choppy, corruptible, cranky, crotchety, deciduous, desultory, deviable, deviating, deviative, deviatory, dicey, different, disarticulated, disconnected, discontinuous, disjunct, disordered, disorderly, dispersed, disproportionate, divaricate, divergent, diversified, diversiform, dizzy, double-minded, doubting, dubious, dying, eccentric, effervescent, ephemeral, equivocal, erose, erratic, evanescent, fading, fanciful, fantasied, fantastic, fast and loose, fence-sitting, fence-straddling, fickle, fitful, flaky, fleeting, flickering, flighty, flitting, fluctuant, fluctuating, fly-by-night, flying, formless, fragile, frail, freakish, frivolous, fugacious, fugitive, giddy, gratuitous, guttering, halting, haphazard, harebrained, heedless, herky-jerky, hesitant, hesitating, heteroclite, hit-or-miss, humorsome, iffy, immethodical, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, inadvertent, incalculable, inchoate, incoherent, inconsiderate, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, indemonstrable, indiscriminate, infirm, infirm of purpose, insubstantial, intermittent, intermitting, irregular, irresolute, irresolved, irresponsible, jagged, jerky, kinky, lubricious, lurching, maggoty, mazy, meaningless, mercurial, misshapen, momentary, moody, mortal, motiveless, motley, mugwumpian, mugwumpish, mutable, nonconformist, nondurable, nonpermanent, nonstandard, nonsymmetrical, nonsystematic, nonuniform, notional, of two minds, orderless, passing, patchy, perishable, petulant, planless, pluralistic, polysemous, promiscuous, quirky, ragged, rambling, random, reasonless, restless, rough, roving, scatterbrained, scrappy, senseless, shapeless, shifting, shifty, short-lived, shuffling, skeptical, snatchy, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spastic, spineless, sporadic, spotty, staggering, straggling, straggly, systemless, temperamental, temporal, temporary, thoughtless, ticklish, touch-and-go, transient, transitive, transitory, unaccountable, unarranged, uncalculating, uncertain, unclassified, unconfirmable, uncontrolled, unconvinced, undecided, undependable, undetermined, undirected, undisciplined, undivinable, undurable, unenduring, unequable, unequal, uneven, unfixed, unforeseeable, ungraded, unguarded, unjoined, unmethodical, unmetrical, unordered, unorganized, unorthodox, unpersuaded, unpredictable, unprovable, unreasonable, unreasoning, unreflecting, unregular, unreliable, unresolved, unrestrained, unrhythmical, unsettled, unsorted, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, unsure, unsymmetrical, unsystematic, unthinking, unthoughtful, ununiform, unverifiable, vacillating, vagarious, vagrant, vague, variable, variegated, variform, various, varying, veering, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile, wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, whimsical, wishy-washy, wobbling, wobbly

ROGET THESAURUS

capricious

Irresolution

N irresolution, infirmity of purpose, indecision, indetermination, undetermination, unsettlement, uncertainty, demur, suspense, hesitating, hesitation, hesitancy, vacillation, changeableness, fluctuation, alternation, caprice, fickleness, levity, legerete, pliancy, weakness, timidity, cowardice, half measures, waverer, ass between two bundles of hay, shuttlecock, butterfly, wimp, doughface, irresolute, infirm of purpose, double-minded, half-hearted, undecided, unresolved, undetermined, shilly-shally, fidgety, tremulous, hesitating, off one's balance, at a loss, vacillating, unsteady, unsteadfast, fickle, without ballast, capricious, volatile, frothy, light, lightsome, light-minded, giddy, fast and loose, weak, feeble-minded, frail, timid, wimpish, wimpy, cowardly, dough-faced, facile, pliant, unable to say 'no', easy-going revocable, reversible, irresolutely, irresolved, irresolvedly, in faltering accents, off and on, from pillar to post, seesaw, Int, how happy could I be with either!.

Caprice

N caprice, fancy, humor, whim, whimsy, whimsey, whimwham, crotchet, capriccio, quirk, freak, maggot, fad, vagary, prank, fit, flimflam, escapade, boutade, wild-goose chase, capriciousness, kink, capricious, erratic, eccentric, fitful, hysterical, full of whims, maggoty, inconsistent, fanciful, fantastic, whimsical, crotchety, kinky, particular, humorsome, freakish, skittish, wanton, wayward, contrary, captious, arbitrary, unconformable, penny wise and pound foolish, fickle, frivolous, sleeveless, giddy, volatile, by fits and starts, without rhyme or reason, nil fuit unquain sic inipar sibi, the deuce is in him.

Absence of Motive

N absence of motive, aimlessness, caprice, chance, without rhyme or reason, aimless, capricious, whimsical, out of mere caprice.

Irregularity of recurrence

N irregularity of recurrence, irregularity, uncertainty, unpunctuality, fitfulness, capriciousness, ecrhythmus, irregular, uncertain, unpunctual, capricious, desultory, fitful, flickering, rambling, rhapsodical, spasmodic, immethodical, unmethodical, variable, irregularly, by fits and starts.

Changeableness

N changeableness, mutability, inconstancy, versatility, mobility, instability, unstable equilibrium, vacillation, fluctuation, vicissitude, alternation, restlessness, fidgets, disquiet, disquietude, inquietude, unrest, agitation, moon, Proteus, chameleon, quicksilver, shifting sands, weathercock, harlequin, Cynthia of the minute, April showers, wheel of Fortune, transientness, changeable, changeful, changing, mutable, variable, checkered, ever changing, protean, proteiform, versatile, unstaid, inconstant, unsteady, unstable, unfixed, unsettled, fluctuating, restless, agitated, erratic, fickle, irresolute, capricious, touch and go, inconsonant, fitful, spasmodic, vibratory, vagrant, wayward, desultory, afloat, alternating, alterable, plastic, mobile, transient, wavering, seesaw, off and on, a rolling stone gathers no moss, pictra mossa non fa muschis, honores mutant mores, varium et mutabile semper femina.