Definition of "saltatory" [sal•ta•to•ry]

• Of, relating to, or adapted for leaping or dancing. (adjective)
• Proceeding by leaps rather than by smooth gradual transitions. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In recent years Bateson in particular has championed the idea of saltatory, or so-called discontinuous evolution, and has collected a number of cases in which more or less marked variations have suddenly appeared."
• "Professor Strong distinguishes between what he calls 'saltatory' and what he calls 'ambulatory' relations."
• "They are not 'saltatory' at any rate, for they evoke their consequences contiguously, from next to next only; and not until the final result of the whole associative sequence, actual or potential, is in our mental sight, can we feel sure what its epistemological significance, if it have any, may be."