Spasmodic

Definition: Spasmodic

Spasmodic

Adjective

1. Affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions; resembling a spasm; "convulsive motions"; "his body made a spasmodic jerk"; "spastic movements".

2. Occurring in spells and often abruptly; "fitful bursts of energy"; "spasmodic rifle fire".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "spasmodic" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1791. (references)

Etymology: Spasmodic \Spas"mod"ic\, adjective. [Greek a convulsion likeness: compare to French spasmotique.]. (Websters 1913)

Health

Medicine

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Spasmodic

Changeableness

Unstaid, inconstant; unsteady, unstable, unfixed, unsettled; fluctuating; Verb: restless; agitated; erratic, fickle; irresolute; capricious; touch and go; inconsonant, fitful, spasmodic; vibratory; vagrant, wayward; desultory; afloat; alternating; alterable, plastic, mobile; transient; wavering.

Discontinuity

Adjective: discontinuous, unsuccessive, broken, interrupted, dicousu; disconnected, unconnected; discrete, disjunctive; fitful; (irregular); spasmodic, desultory; intermitting, occasional; Verb:, intermittent; alternate; recurrent; (periodic).

Disease

Ague, angina pectoris, appendicitis; Asiatic cholera, spasmodic cholera; biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague; blennorrhagia, blennorrhoea; blood poisoning, bloodstroke, bloody flux, brash; breakbone fever, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever; heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy; hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis; bronchocele, canker rash, cardialgia, carditis, endocarditis; cholera, asphyxia; chlorosis, chorea, cynanche, dartre; enanthem, enanthema; erysipelas; exanthem, exanthema; gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness; grip, grippe, influenza, flu; hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw; measles, mumps, polio; necrosis, pertussis, phthisis, pneumonia, psora, pyaemia, pyrosis, quinsy, rachitis, ringworm, rubeola, St. Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma, syntexis, tetanus, tetter, tonsillitis, tonsilitis, tracheocele, trachoma, trismus, varicella, varicosis, variola, water qualm, whooping cough; yellow fever, yellow jack.

Irregularity of recurrence

Dj. irregular, uncertain, unpunctual, capricious, desultory, fitful, flickering; rambling, rhapsodical; spasmodic; immethodical, unmethodical, variable.

Transientness

Adjective: transient, transitory, transitive; passing, evanescent, fleeting, cursory, short-lived, ephemeral; flying; Verb: fugacious, fugitive; shifting, slippery; spasmodic; instantaneous, momentaneous.

Violence

Spasmodic, convulsive, explosive; detonating; Verb: volcanic, meteoric; stormy; (wind).

Crosswords: Spasmodic

Romanian (jerky, spasmodic, spasmodically).

References

• The Official Patient's Sourcebook on Spasmodic Dysphonia (reference)

  (more reference examples)

Books

• The first spasmodic cholera epidemic in York, 1832 (reference)

• The Spasmodic Career of Sydney Dobell (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Health

The cause of spasmodic dysphonia is unknown. (references)

There is presently no cure for spasmodic dysphonia. (references)

There are three different types of spasmodic dysphonia. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "spasmodic": spasmodic croup ♦ spasmodic laryngitis ♦ spasmodic stricture ♦ spasmodic tic. Additional references.

Albanian

spazmatik (paroxysmal), me ngërç, me gulçe, i vrullshëm (blusterous, blustery, convulsive, darting, dashing, drastic, explosive, impetuous, rash, rattling, sudden, sweeping, tearaway, tearing, thrifty, vehement, vigorous). (various references)

Arabic 

‏متقطع (broken, casual, choppy, cut off, disconnected, discontinuous, fitful, fretful, intermission, intermittent, interrupted, irregular, occasional, remittent, sporadic, torn apart, uneven), ‏تشنجي (convulsive, fitful, spastic), ‏سريع الهياج, ‏إهتياجي (excitable). (various references)

Bulgarian 

спазматичен (spastic), конвулсивен (convulsive, jerky), идващ на пристъпи. (various references)

Chinese 

痉挛 (spastic). (various references)

Czech

sporadický (sporadic), spastický (spastic), křeèovitý (convulsive, fitful, forced, spastic). (various references)

Danish

spasmodisk (convulsive, spastic). (various references)

Dutch

spasmodisch. (various references)

Farsi 

همراه باانقباضات , تشنجی (Jerky, Spastic), بگیروول کن . (various references)

Finnish

kouristuksenomainen (convulsive). (various references)

French

spasmodique (spastic). (various references)

German

spasmodisch (spasmic), spasmisch (spasmic), krampfhaft (convulsive, desperate, forced, frantic). (various references)

Greek 

σπασμωδικόσ (convulsive, fitful, jerky, jumpy, spastic). (various references)

Hebrew 

עויתי (convulsive, spastic). (various references)

Hungarian

görcsös (convulsive, cramp, fitful, spastic). (various references)

Italian

spasmodico (agonizing). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

発作的 (fitful). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

ほっさてき (fitful). (various references)

Manx

teaymagh (capricious, fickle, fitful, freakish, humoursome, moody, notional, wavering, whimsical), lhieeneydagh (spastic, supplemental, supplementary). (various references)

Pig Latin

asmodicspay

Portuguese

espasmódico (clonic, cramped, fitful, spastic). (various references)

Romanian

spasmodic (jerky, spasmodically), convulsiv (convulsive, fitful, jerkily, jerky). (various references)

Russian 

спазматический. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

spazmodički, grčevit (convulsive, fitful, jerky). (various references)

Spanish

espasmódico (fitful, jerky). (various references)

Swedish

krampaktig (convulsive, jerky). (various references)

Turkish

sarsıla sarsıla olan, süreksiz olan, kasılma ile ilgili, kasıla kasıla, daldan dala konan (vagabond), aralıklı (discontinuous, episodic, fitful, intermittent, scattered, spaced-out, sparse, sporadic). (various references)

Ukrainian

судорожний (fitful, paroxysmal, snatchy, spastic), нерегулярний (casual, irregular, non-recurring, occasional, odd, snatchy, uneven), збуджений (ablaze, agitated, animate, astir, excited, feverish, heated, hot, intoxicate, irritated, nervy, overwrought, tense, tumultuous, warm, wrought). (various references)

Vietnamese 

lúc có lúc không; lác đác đột biến (spasmodical). (various references)

Welsh

adegol. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "spasmodic": spasmodically. (additional references)

Words ending with "spasmodic": antispasmodic. (additional references)

Words containing "spasmodic": antispasmodics. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Spasmodic" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: psalmodic, psammitic, spazmodic. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-2 letters: capsids, compass, mosaics, psocids.

-3 letters: asdics, aspics, campos, capsid, dipsas, dipsos, discos, modica, mosaic, osmics, passim, piscos, psocid, sadism, scampi, scamps, spicas.

-4 letters: acids, adios, amido, amids, amiss, apods, apsis, asdic, aspic, aspis, cadis, caids, campi, campo, camps, capos, codas, comas, comps, damps, dipso, disco, discs, domic, dopas, maids, micas, misdo, misos, oasis.

+3 letters: comradeships, dipsomaniacs.

+4 letters: antispasmodic, spasmodically.

+5 letters: antispasmodics, commanderships, compassionated, psychodynamics, stapedectomies.