chaotic

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Filled with chaos.

   Treating of the Expanſum, or Inferiour Heav'n, he ſays that according to the Moſaick Phyſiology, the Heav'ns, generated of the Abyſſine, or Chaotick Waters, are divided only into two Orbs, call'd by the names of the Superiour and Inferiour Heav'ns […]

2. 2
   adj

   Extremely disorganized or in disarray.

   In theſe early and unrefined Ages, the jarring Parts of a certain chaotick Conſtitution ſupported their ſeveral Pretenſions by the Sword. Experience and Policy have ſince taught other Methods.

3. 3
   adj

   Highly sensitive to starting conditions, so that a small change to them may yield a very different outcome.

   The manipulation of the environment through design involves many branches of mathematics: the projective geometry of light transmission, the chaotic and probabilistic maths of weather patterns, and the statistical algorithms required to make analysis legible and obtain discrete building components from continuous distributions.

4. 4
   adj

   Aligned against following or upholding laws and principles.

   While a player in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is required to properly perform one of nine moral categories (e.g., "lawful good" or "chaotic neutral"), the Everway player is expected to perform the literary equivalent of moral themes. It is easy to imagine a Macbeth Everway character with the fault of ambition or King Solomon with the virtue of wisdom. It is, however, an additional step removed—and therefore seemintly more contrived—to imagine Macbeth as "chaotic neutral," "neutral evil," or "lawful neutral."

5. 5
   adj

   lacking a visible order or organization

6. 6
   adj

   completely unordered and unpredictable and confusing

7. 7
   adj

   of or relating to a sensitive dependence on initial conditions

8. 8
   noun

   A character having a chaotic alignment.

Etymology

From Late Latin chaoticus (“of or pertaining to the primordial state of the universe”), from Latin chaos (“chaos”) + -ticus (suffix forming adjectives from nouns); analysable as chaos + -otic. Doublet of gassy.