spasmodic

1. 1.

   affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions; resembling a spasm

   “convulsive motions”

   “his body made a spasmodic jerk”

   “spastic movements”

   Synonymsconvulsivespastic

   Similarunsteady
2. 2.

   occurring in spells and often abruptly

   “fitful bursts of energy”

   “spasmodic rifle fire”

   Synonymsfitful

   Similarsporadic

Questions about spasmodic

What does spasmodic mean?

spasmodic means "affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions; resembling a spasm". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in spasmodic?

spasmodic has 3 syllables: spa-smo-dic. The stress falls on "smo". In IPA it is /spæzˈmɔdɪk/.

What is another word for spasmodic?

Close synonyms include convulsive, spastic, fitful. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is spasmodic a common word?

spasmodic is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.