intermittent

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: in=ter=mit=tent
• COUNT in NET: 1 in 1 verses (in OT : 1 in 1 verses)

CIDE DICTIONARY

intermittent, a. [L. intermittens, -entis, p. pr. of intermittere: cf. F. intermittent.].

 Coming and going at intervals; alternating; recurrent; periodic; as, an intermittent fever.  Boyle.  [1913 Webster]

Intermittent fever (Med.), a disease with fever which recurs at certain intervals; -- applied particularly to fever and ague. See Fever. -- Intermittent gearing (Mach.), gearing which receives, or produces, intermittent motion. -- Intermittent springs, springs which flow at intervals, not apparently dependent upon rain or drought. They probably owe their intermittent action to their being connected with natural reservoirs in hills or mountains by passages having the form of a siphon, the water beginning to flow when it has accumulated so as to fill the upper part of the siphon, and ceasing when, by running through it, it has fallen below the orifice of the upper part of the siphon in the reservoir.

intermittent, n. 

 An intermittent fever or disease.  Dunglison.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

intermittent, adj. occurring at intervals; not continuous or steady.

Derivative

intermittence n. intermittency n. intermittently adv.

Etymology

L intermittere intermittent- (as INTERMIT)

THESAURUS

intermittent

alternate, alternating, arrested, beating, broken, broken off, capricious, careening, catchy, checked, chopped-off, choppy, circling, cyclic, cyclical, decousu, desultory, deviative, disconnected, discontinued, discontinuous, discrete, disjunctive, eccentric, episodic, epochal, erratic, even, every other, fitful, flickering, fluctuating, guttering, halting, herky-jerky, heteroclite, immethodical, incoherent, inconstant, infrequent, intermitting, interrupted, irregular, isochronal, isochronous, iterative, jagged, jerky, lurching, measured, metrical, metronomic, noncontinuous, nonlinear, nonsequential, nonserial, nonuniform, occasional, on-again-off-again, oscillatory, parenthetic, patchy, periodic, periodical, pulsating, pulsing, rambling, random, reciprocal, recurrent, recurring, rhythmic, rhythmical, rotary, rough, scrappy, seasonal, serial, snatchy, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spastic, sporadic, spotty, staggering, steady, suspended, uncertain, unconnected, undulant, undulatory, unequal, uneven, unjoined, unmethodical, unmetrical, unregular, unrhythmical, unsettled, unsteady, unsuccessive, unsystematic, variable, veering, wandering, wavelike, wavering, wheeling, wobbling, wobbly

ROGET THESAURUS

intermittent

Discontinuity

N discontinuity, disjunction, anacoluthon, interruption, break, fracture, flaw, fault, crack, cut, gap, solution of continuity, caesura, broken thread, parenthesis, episode, rhapsody, patchwork, intermission, alternation, dropping fire, discontinuous, unsuccessive, broken, interrupted, dicousu, disconnected, unconnected, discrete, disjunctive, fitful, spasmodic, desultory, intermitting, occasional, intermittent, alternate, recurrent, at intervals, by snatches, by jerks, by skips, by catches, by fits and starts, skippingly, per saltum, longo intervallo, like 'angel visits few and far between'.

Periodicity

N regularity of recurrence, periodicity, intermittence, beat, oscillation, pulse, pulsation, rhythm, alternation, alternateness, alternativeness, alternity, bout, round, revolution, rotation, turn, say, anniversary, jubilee, centenary, catamenia, courses, menses, menstrual flux, rota, cycle, period, stated time, routine, days of the week, Sunday, Monday, months of the year, January, feast, fast, Christmas, Easter, New Year's day, Allhallows, Allhallowmas, All Saints' Day, All Souls', All Souls' Day, Ash Wednesday, bicentennial, birthday, bissextile, Candlemas, Dewali, groundhog day, Halloween, Hallowmas, Lady day, leap year, Midsummer day, Muharram, woodchuck day, St. Swithin's day, natal day, yearbook, yuletide, punctuality, regularity, steadiness, periodic, periodical, serial, recurrent, cyclical, rhythmical, recurring, intermittent, remittent, alternate, every other, hourly, diurnal, daily, quotidian, tertian, weekly, hebdomadal, hebdomadary, biweekly, fortnightly, bimonthly, catamenial, monthly, menstrual, yearly, annual, biennial, triennial, centennial, secular, paschal, lenten, regular, steady, punctual, regular as clockwork, periodically, at regular intervals, at stated times, at fixed established, at established periods, punctually, de die in diem, from day to day, day by day, by turns, in turn, in rotation, alternately, every other day, off and on, ride and tie, round and round.