scattered

1. 1
   adjective

   Spread apart into separate, disconnected units across an area rather than gathered together.

   Scattered farmhouses dotted the valley, miles apart from one another.

   The papers were scattered all over the desk after the wind blew in.

   Similardispersed, isolated, sparse

   Oppositeclustered, concentrated, gathered

   Note

   Here the spreading has already happened, and the adjective describes what it left behind. Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587–1588) speaks of a scattered army, a force broken up and beaten. The word pairs naturally with adverbs of density, as in thinly scattered birches near the timber line. Applied to sound, it describes applause that comes from a few hands here and there rather than from the whole house.

2. 2
   adjective

   Distributed in a way that appears random, with no obvious order or arrangement.

   Scattered data points on the graph showed no clear trend.

   The survey responses came back scattered, revealing no consistent preference.

   Similarrandom, haphazard, inconsistent, erratic, disorganized

   Oppositeorderly, consistent, uniform, systematic

   Note

   The emphasis moves from distance to disorder. Things can sit close together and still be scattered if they follow no pattern. W. B. Maxwell's The Mirror and the Lamp (1918) uses it for a room crowded with wooden chairs, wicker armchairs and Indian clubs fresh from packing cases. That room is not empty or spread out, only without arrangement. Ask whether the trouble is distance or lack of order to tell this sense from the sense of things spread apart.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of scatter.

   The crowd scattered the moment the rain began.

   Farmers scattered seed across the freshly plowed field.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty. It serves as the simple past (the crowd scattered) and as the participle after have or be (the seed was scattered). Because scatter works with or without an object, the past tense does too: the birds scattered, and the noise scattered the birds. Physicists use the participle for deflected radiation, as in scattered light. The same form also serves as the adjective for things spread apart, which takes more and most.

4. 4
   adjective

   Of cloud cover, extending over three eighths to four eighths of the sky.

   The afternoon report listed scattered clouds over the coastal region.

   Pilots noted scattered cloud at three thousand feet during the descent.

   Note

   Weather and aviation reports measure cloud in eighths of the sky, called oktas. Scattered marks the middle band, three to four eighths. Few sits below it and broken above it. In a report the word names a fixed quantity, not a loose impression. A pilot who hears "scattered at three thousand feet" knows how much open sky lies between the clouds at that height.

5. 5
   adjective

   Of precipitation, affecting thirty to fifty percent of a forecast zone.

   Scattered thunderstorms will move through the valley by evening.

   The bulletin warned of scattered showers affecting much of the county.

   Similarsporadic, patchy, occasional

   Oppositewidespread

   Note

   Rain is measured on a different scale from the cloud-cover term. The fraction here is of the forecast area, not of the sky: thirty to fifty percent of the zone should see rain. The word describes how much ground gets wet. It says nothing about how hard the rain falls or when it arrives, so scattered showers can still mean a downpour wherever they do land.

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