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Desultory is an English word with synonyms like purposeless. Below you'll find 10+ example sentences showing how it's used in practice.

Rare word

Desultory in a sentence

Desultory meaning

  1. Jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another, without order, planning, or rational connection; lacking logical sequence.
  2. Out of course; by the way; not connected with the subject.
  3. Disappointing in performance or progress.

Synonyms of Desultory

purposeless

Related words

Other words often associated with Desultory or its synonyms:

rudderless aimless senseless afloat pointless meaningless undirected directionless adrift purposeful

Using Desultory

  • The main meaning on this page is: Jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another, without order, planning, or rational connection; lacking logical sequence. | Out of course; by the way; not connected with the subject. | Disappointing in performance or progress.
  • Useful related words include: purposeless.
  • In the example corpus, desultory often appears in combinations such as: in desultory, and desultory.

Context around Desultory

  • Average sentence length in these examples: 28.3 words
  • Position in the sentence: 6 start, 5 middle, 5 end
  • Sentence types: 16 statements, 0 questions, 0 exclamations

Often before:

first 1× current 1× largely 1× became 1×

Often after:

wretch 1× complaint 1× sojourn 1× minimalist 1× innings 1× start 1× efforts 1× fighting 1× way 1× formal 1×

Sentence patterns with Desultory

These short patterns come directly from the example sentences and show how the word is often embedded:

after a desultory start to 1× be a desultory minimalist win 1× delay and desultory fighting he 1× desultory efforts at 1× filed a desultory complaint against 1× his first desultory sojourn in 1× imperfect and desultory formal education 1× in 47 desultory innings 1×

Sentence openings and endings

Common sentence openings:

after a desultory 1× after a few 1× after some delay 1× desultory efforts at 1× hud bannon is 1× i imagined her 1×

Common sentence endings:

47 desultory innings 1× a desultory way 1× a grover cleveland 1× a public service 1× cutters in 1960 1× desultory formal education 1×

Words around Desultory

Just before it in the word index:

desulfurization 3 desublimation 3 desu 7 desty 2 destry 8 destructs 6

Just after it in the word index:

desus 13 desutter 2 desuung 2 desveaux 2 deswal 2 desy 14

Similar in corpus frequency:

aav 21 abdicating 21 abductor 21 abet 21 abh 21 abhorred 21

Corpus analysis for Desultory

  • In this selection, "desultory" usually appears near the start of the sentence. The average example has 28.3 words, and this corpus slice is mostly made up of statements.
  • Around the word, first, current, largely, wretch, complaint and sojourn stand out and add context to how "desultory" is used.
  • Recognizable usage signals include after a desultory start to and be a desultory minimalist win. That gives this page its own corpus information beyond isolated example sentences.
  • By corpus frequency, "desultory" sits close to words such as aav, abdicating and abductor, which helps place it inside the broader word index.

Example types with desultory

The same corpus examples are grouped by length and sentence type, making it easier to see the contexts in which the word appears:

Short example sentences

After a few unsuccessful spells as a low level clerk, his job-seeking became desultory. (15 words)

Scientific work All his life Diderot would keep writing on science in a desultory way. (15 words)

The judges won, by a small margin on a desultory turnout, and Dredd was satisfied. (15 words)

Longer example sentences

I imagined her first fifteen or twenty Fuck-offs had carried some real bite but now were largely desultory, as if I should've known I had no business speaking to her and I was being told to fuck off strictly as a public service. (45 words)

Hud Bannon is a desultory wretch, a man without purpose straggling through life rather than living it, unable to break free from the damaged familial bonds that keep him tied to his father's failing cattle ranch in a dusty Texas panhandle town. (43 words)

The Lunts wanted Brando to play the role of Alfred Lunt 's son in O Mistress Mine, and Lunt even coached him for his audition, but Brando's reading during the audition was so desultory that they couldn't hire him. (41 words)

Example sentences (16)

Hud Bannon is a desultory wretch, a man without purpose straggling through life rather than living it, unable to break free from the damaged familial bonds that keep him tied to his father's failing cattle ranch in a dusty Texas panhandle town.

Jim Lyons filed a desultory complaint against mail-in voting and then went back to plotting more lawsuits… against Republicans.

More than anything else, the Deep State fears that the Donald may have learned just enough during his first desultory sojourn in the Oval Office to actually threaten their rule should he pull a Grover Cleveland.

The referendum can still be won, but it would be a desultory, minimalist win that will leave the nation divided for years (“The Yes campaign must abandon its ‘make history’ shtick or risk being on the wrong side of it”).

The team's opening-day starter, Kyle Muller, was just demoted to Triple-A Sacramento after allowing 92 baserunners in 47 desultory innings.

After a desultory start to the campaign season, news outlets are starting to see interest in political news perk up because of an extraordinary run of stories over the past few weeks.

Desultory efforts at preservation failed, perhaps in part because of its brief, uneventful career, and went to the cutters in 1960.

In a desultory and ill-tempered campaign, he berated the “free education” policy of the Action Group that had transformed Western Nigeria, village for village, into perhaps the most literate territory in Africa south of the Sahara.

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I imagined her first fifteen or twenty Fuck-offs had carried some real bite but now were largely desultory, as if I should've known I had no business speaking to her and I was being told to fuck off strictly as a public service.

After a few unsuccessful spells as a low level clerk, his job-seeking became desultory.

After some delay and desultory fighting, he and his uncle, Azam Khan, occupied Kabul in March 1866.

Scientific work All his life Diderot would keep writing on science in a desultory way.

She was a bright girl, if not brilliant, but received only an imperfect and desultory formal education.

The judges won, by a small margin on a desultory turnout, and Dredd was satisfied.

The Lunts wanted Brando to play the role of Alfred Lunt 's son in O Mistress Mine, and Lunt even coached him for his audition, but Brando's reading during the audition was so desultory that they couldn't hire him.

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Common combinations with desultory

These word pairs occur most frequently in English texts:

Frequently asked questions

How do you use "desultory" in a sentence?
An example: "Hud Bannon is a desultory wretch, a man without purpose straggling through life rather than living it, unable to break free from the damaged familial bonds that keep him tied to his father's failing cattle ranch in a dusty Texas panhandle town." This page contains 10+ example sentences with the word "desultory" from authentic English texts.
What does "desultory" mean?
Desultory means: Jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another, without order, planning, or rational connection; lacking logical sequence.
What are synonyms of "desultory"?
Common synonyms of "desultory" include: purposeless.
How many example sentences with "desultory" are there?
Voorbeeldzinnen.info contains at least 10+ example sentences with "desultory", drawn from a database of millions of English sentences.