F. D. RooseveltEdith HamiltonJohn Locke
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The hap in haphazard comes from an English word that means "happening," as well as "chance or fortune." Hap, in turn, comes from the Old Norse word happ, meaning "good luck." Perhaps it's no accident that hazard also has its own connotations of chance and 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 comes from the Arabic word al-zahr, meaning "the die.") Haphazard first entered English as a noun meaning "chance" in the 16th century, and soon afterward was being used as an adjective to describe things with no apparent logic or order.
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Examples of haphazard in a Sentence
Adam Trenkamp, Outside Online, 10 Oct. 2024
At times, the company seems to police videos primarily in response to public outcry, which makes its decisions inherently haphazard and potentially malleable.
—Louise Matsakis, WIRED, 2 Mar. 2018
Congress had just passed the National Flood Insurance Program in 1968, but implementation had been haphazard.
—Justin McBrien / Made By History, TIME, 9 Oct. 2024
The former president's endorsement process has evolved from haphazard to sharp and effective, rendering all other endorsements all but obsolete.
—Kaleigh Rogers, ABC News, 13 Sep. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Haphazard.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haphazard. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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