Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Harum-scarum |
Harum-scarumAdjective1. Cheerfully irresponsible; "carefree with his money"; "freewheeling urban youths"; "had a harum-scarum youth". Adverb1. In a wild or reckless manner; "dashing harum-scarum all over the place"; "running pell-mell up the stairs". Noun1. A reckless impetuous irresponsible person. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "harum-scarum" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1832. (references) |
Note: Harum-scarum \Har"um-scar"um\, adjective. [Compare to hare,v. t., and scare, transitive verb]. (references) |
Synonyms: Harum-scarumSynonyms: carefree (adj), devil-may-care (adj), freewheeling (adj), happy-go-lucky (adj), slaphappy (adj), pell-mell (adv), daredevil (n), hothead (n), lunatic (n), madcap (n), swashbuckler (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Disorder | Adverb: irregularly; Adjective: by fits, by fits and snatches, by fits and starts; pellmell; higgledy-piggledy; helter-skelter, harum-scarum; in a ferment; at sixes and sevens, at cross-purposes; upside down. |
Inattention | Adjective: inattentive; unobservant, unmindful, heedless, unthinking, unheeding, undiscerning; inadvertent; mindless, regardless, respectless, listless; (indifferent); blind, deaf; bird-witted; hand over head; cursory, percursory; giddy-brained, scatter-brained, hare-brained; unreflective, unreflecting, ecervele; offhand; dizzy, muzzy, brainsick; giddy, giddy as a goose; wild, harum-scarum, rantipole, highflying; heedless, careless; (neglectful). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Harum-scarum |
| English words defined with "harum-scarum": carefree ♦ devil-may-care ♦ freewheeling ♦ happy-go-lucky ♦ pell-mell ♦ slaphappy. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "harum-scarum": Harum Scarum. (references) |
| "Harum-scarum" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Harum-scarum" is used about 3 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 3 | 202,518 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Language | Translations for "harum-scarum"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Hungarian | hebehurgya (blundering, flighty, giddy, giddy-pated, half cocked, inconsiderate, precipitous, scatter-brained), szeles (blowy, breezy, dirty, drafty, draughty, feather brain, featherbrain, flighty, giddy-pated, gusty, perky, rattlebrained, slap-dash, to lack ballast, windy), szeleburdi (featherbrain, flibbertigibbet, flighty, giddy, rattlebrained, thoughtless, to lack ballast), kelekótya (featherbrained, feather-brained, feather-headed, harebrained, hare-brained, harum scarum, scatter-brained). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | っ "狂 (hysteric, in disarray, wild). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | すっと"きょう (hysteric, in disarray, wild). (various references) | |
Manx | peiagh gyn thort. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | arum-scarumhay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | volvel, leviano (bohemian, frivolous, giddy, impulsive, light, light-headed, skittish), estouvado (heedless, light-headed, madcap, reckless, thoughtless, unthinking, wrong-headed), arrebatado (desperate, furious, heady, impetuous, passionate, rapt, rapturous, rash, rumbustious, stormy, towering, warm). (various references) | |
Russian | как попало (helter-skelter, hit or miss). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người liều lĩnh (dare-devil), người khinh suất (madcap), liều lĩnh (dare-devil, hare-brained, rash, reckless, temerarious, venturesome, wildcat), khinh suất (hare-brained, hasty, imprudent, incautious, inconsiderate, precipitate, reckless, thoughtless, unadvised, unreflecting). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Harum-scarum" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: harmscara. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "harum-scarum" (pronounced 'Har"um-scar"um'): Alarum, Amoebaeum, Brontozoum, Bryozoum, Chloralum, Conium, Decorum, lyceum, mausoleum, Mesophloeum, Meum, Minum, museum, Notaeum, Oakum, Odeum, Ommateum, Otozoum, Perinaeum, Perineum, Peritoneum, Phleum, Pleuroperitoneum, Proctodaeum, Propylaeum, Prytaneum, Retineum, Stomatodaeum, Stomodaeum, Tuum, Uraeum, Xenodochium. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-h-m-m-r-r-s-u-u" | |
-4 letters: curaras, marrams, murmurs, murrhas. | |
-5 letters: acarus, asarum, ashram, aurums, charas, charms, charrs, churrs, curara, hummus, marram, murmur, murras, murrha, sacrum, sumach. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Derivations 7. Rhymes 8. Anagrams | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
