Identify the option closest in meaning to the underlined word:-
The situation in the city became tense as fighting continued sporadically for two months.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → occasionally
Sporadically means now and then, at irregular intervals, not continuously. Fighting that went on sporadically for two months broke out from time to time. Its synonym is occasionally.
Example: It rained sporadically throughout the match.
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| (1) frequently | often, many times (sporadic events are scattered and few) | He frequently visits his grandparents. |
| (2) continuously | without a break (the opposite of sporadically) | The machine ran continuously for ten hours. |
| (3) unpredictably | in a way that cannot be foreseen (sporadic fighting may be hard to predict, but the word sporadically tells us how often something happens, now and then, not whether it can be foreseen) | The weather in the hills changes unpredictably. |
| (4) occasionally (answer) | sometimes, from time to time (it describes the same broken, on-and-off pattern) | We occasionally eat out on Sundays. |
| Also asked in CUET (UG): sporadically – 23-06-2023 Slot 3 |