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scatter

/ˈskætər//ˈskætə/·verb
to throw or send things in different directions so they spread out irregularly
Fig. 1 — A tight triangle of balls sits on the table, racked into perfect order, not one of them moving.
01Definition

To scatter is to send things flying apart so they land here and there with no order — a handful of gravel flung across a path, papers blown off a desk, a flock startled into the air. The word stresses suddenness and irregularity: what scatters is strewn unevenly and left wherever it falls, not neatly distributed. It works both ways, much like its cousin disperse — a crowd can scatter, or police can scatter it — but where disperse suggests an even thinning-away, scatter keeps that sense of a sudden, random fling.

02In use
  • iThe cue ball struck the rack and the balls scattered to every corner of the table.
  • iiA sudden bang made the pigeons scatter into the sky.
  • iiiShe tried to consolidate her notes, but a gust scattered them across the floor.
03Collocations
  • scatter in all directions
  • scatter seeds
  • scattered showers
  • scatter to the winds
  • widely scattered

Family scattered (adjective) · scattering (noun) · scatterbrained (adjective)

04Relations

=disperse, strew, sprinkle, spread, fling

≠gather, consolidate, converge

05Compared
PairThe difference
scatter vs amalgamateseveral organizations gathered into one ordered whole → amalgamate; things thrown apart in all directions at random → scatter.
scatter vs assemblefit parts together into a whole, or gather in order → assemble; throw things apart in all directions at random → scatter.
scatter vs blendmix things into one seamless whole → blend; throw things apart in all directions at random → scatter.
scatter vs clustergather things into a tight, dense bunch → cluster; throw things apart in all directions at random → scatter.
scatter vs coalesceseparate things grow together into one whole → coalesce; throw things apart in all directions at random → scatter.

Also compared with coincide, combine, come together, concentrate, congregate, consolidate, converge, disband, disperse, dissipate, dissolve, diverge, divide, fuse, gather, integrate, intersect, join, meet, merge, radiate, separate, split, spread, unite

06TOEFL & IELTS

Common in TOEFL science (the scattering of light, scattered populations) and in weather ('scattered showers'). Distinguish it from disperse: scatter stresses suddenness and randomness, while disperse suggests a more even thinning-out. The adjective scattered ('scattered evidence', 'scattered settlements') is frequent in academic prose.

07Asked
What are scattered showers?
Rain that falls in random patches rather than everywhere at once — so a forecast of scattered showers means some places get wet and others stay dry, with no way to say in advance which. Forecasters typically mean roughly 30 to 50 percent of an area will be covered — about a third to a half — though the exact band varies by service. The word keeps its core: the rain is strewn about irregularly, landing here and not there, exactly as the term promises.
What does scatterbrained mean?
Unable to keep a thought in order — forgetful, disorganized, mind flying off in all directions. The image is the verb turned on the mind itself: attention scattered like the balls off the break in the scene above, no two heading the same way. It is gently mocking rather than cruel, the word for someone who loses their keys mid-sentence, not someone incapable.
What is the difference between scatter and disperse?
Scatter is a sudden, random fling; disperse is an even thinning-away — the two motions are compared on the disperse vs scatter page in the 'Compared' list above.
Can you scatter something, or do things only scatter by themselves?
Both — it is an ergative verb, taking a doer or none at all. In practice the intransitive prevails for living things that flee on their own (the crowd scattered, the pigeons scattered), while the transitive dominates the technical senses someone performs: scatter seed, scatter light, scatter data points. Same verb — the living tend to scatter themselves, the inert are scattered by a hand or a force.
What does 'scatter to the winds' mean?
To be flung apart and lost in every direction — a family scattered to the winds by war, caution thrown to the winds. The phrase pushes scatter to its extreme: not just spread out but dispersed beyond gathering back. 'Throw caution to the winds' is the same image turned deliberate — abandoning care as freely as chaff blown off a hand.
What is a scatter plot?
A graph that shows data as points strewn across two axes, with no line joining them — each dot is one observation, and the spread reveals whether two variables move together or not. The name is simply the verb applied to statistics: the points are scattered, not ordered, the same core the scene above dramatizes with the break. It is standard vocabulary for describing an IELTS Task 1 chart.