chaotic

adjective

cha·​ot·​ic kā-ˈä-tik 

1

: marked by chaos or being in a state of chaos : completely confused or disordered

a chaotic political race

After he became famous, his life became even more chaotic.

They may look chaotic and barbaric, but scrums are a critical and strategic part of the game, and they unfold and escalate according to hockey's venerated, unwritten rules of engagement.

—David Fleming

To the uninitiated visitor, the seemingly chaotic energy of a typical Thai market may give the impression of a free-for-all, …

—Diane Ruengsom

2

mathematics : having outcomes that can vary widely due to extremely small changes in initial conditions

In other words, what comes out of the program's equations is extremely sensitive to what goes in. And that, as any mathematician would recognize, is one of the hallmarks of chaotic systems.

—Ingrid Wickelgren

A physical system—a weather system, say—is chaotic if a very slight change in initial conditions sends the system off on a very different course.

—Physics Today

chaotically

kā-ˈä-ti-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

a chaotically busy scene

Synonyms

• cluttered
• confused
• disarranged
• disarrayed
• disheveled
• dishevelled
• disordered
• disorderly
• higgledy-piggledy
• hugger-mugger
• jumbled
• littered
• messed
• messy
• muddled
• mussed
• mussy
• pell-mell
• rumpled
• sloppy
• topsy-turvy
• tousled
• tumbled
• unkempt
• untidy
• upside-down

Examples of chaotic in a Sentence

a chaotic cellar sorely in need of some straightening up

Recent Examples on the Web

Watch on Deadline Season 2 picked up after the chaotic Season 1 finale when Pat lands herself in a psychiatric hospital for trying to murder her family with an ax. —Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 2 Jan. 2025

Our chaotic surroundings, meanwhile, provide far more than just ten bits per second of information—and to be fair, the human senses can match this delivery. —Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Dec. 2024

One of the world’s great drinking cities, Belfast and its charming, chaotic pub scene is a perfect breeding ground for poitín’s revival — something that Dave Mulligan, the owner of Bán Poitín, noted while perfecting the Belfast Coffee recipe. —Jonathan Thompson, Travel + Leisure, 30 Dec. 2024

The early instability model in which the early inner solar system was basically such a chaotic, orbital mess that the building blocks for rocky planets beyond the orbit of earth and Venus were too perturbed to coalesce into any larger than Mars. —Bruce Dorminey, Forbes, 30 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1688, in the meaning defined at sense 1