To splatter means to scatter or splash in messy drops and spots. When you accidentally knock over a glass of juice, it splatters across the kitchen floor in dozens of little puddles. When you jump in a muddy puddle, dirty water splatters up your legs and onto your clothes.

The word captures both the action and the result: rain splatters against a window, leaving spotted trails of water. A painter who works too quickly might splatter paint across a drop cloth. If you've ever cracked an egg too hard against a bowl's edge, you know how yolk can splatter in unexpected directions.

Splatter suggests something wet hitting a surface with enough force to break apart and spread. It's messier and more scattered than a simple splash. When you splash water on your face, you control it. When water splatters, it goes everywhere, often in ways you didn't intend. Artists like Jackson Pollock deliberately splattered paint across huge canvases to create their work, turning an accident into art.