random

Meaning

Noun

1. A roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance.
2. (obsolete) Speed, full speed; impetuosity, force.
3. 1548, Edward Hall, “The triumphant reigne of Kyng Henry the VIII”, in The Union of the two noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke (Hall’s Chronicle), page 82v
4. 1548, Edward Hall, “The triumphant reigne of Kyng Henry the VIII”, in The Union of the two noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke (Hall’s Chronicle), page 82v:
   […] for coragiouſly the two kynges newely foughte with great randon and force, they ſhewed their vigors and ſtrengthes and did ſo nobly that their coũter parties had none aduaũtage.
5. (obsolete) The full range of a bullet or other projectile; hence, the angle at which a weapon is tilted to allow the greatest range.
6. (colloquial) An undefined, unknown or unimportant person; a person of no consequence.
7. The direction of a rake-vein.
8. A frame for composing type.

Adj

1. Occurring for no particular reason; haphazard, unpredictable.
2. Involving an outcome which is impossible to predict, but which may be represented by a probability distribution; in the ideal case, involving outcomes which are equally likely.
3. Pseudorandom; mimicking the result of random selection.
4. (informal) Selected for no particular reason; arbitrary; unspecified.
5. (informal) Being (part of) a varied, unrelated, and apparently arbitrary collection of things; diverse, heterogeneous.
6. (informal) Apropos of nothing; lacking context, relevance, or any connection to the previous situation; unexpected.
7. (informal) Of a person: characterized by or often saying random things; habitually using non sequiturs.
8. (slang) Being out of the ordinary; unusual or unexpected; odd, strange, bizarre.

Synonyms

accidental

haphazard

chance

🎲

arbitrary

casual

adventitious

fortuitous

irregular

unplanned

hit-or-miss

sporadic

disorderly

stray

incidental

indefinite

desultory

unsystematic

contingent

destiny

occasional

coincidental

erratic

optional

any given

unselective

unmethodical

uncertain

aimless

aleatory

pointless

precarious

probabilistic

randomly

rash

scratch

shaky

stochastic

sundry

thoughtlessly

unexpected

unorganized

unspecified

unstructured

various

wantonly

wilfully

aleatoric

chanceful

whatever works

hitty-missy

on-engine

random stochastic

at random

at will

betide

by chance

by luck

chancy

circumstantial

confused

😕

different

disorder

doubtful

dubious

easy-going

episodic

fate

fortuity

fortune

fragmentary

halfhearted

hap

inadvertent

indiscriminate

luck

🍀

miscellaneous

odd

on the spot

passing

planless

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɹændəm/

Etymology

From earlier randon, from Middle English randoun, raundon, from Old French randon, from randir (“to run, gallop”) (whence French randonnée (“long walk, hike”)), from Frankish *randiju (“a run, race”) or Old Norse rend (“a run, race”), both from Proto-Germanic *randijō, from *rinnaną (“run”, verb), from Proto-Indo-European *(H)r̥-nw- (“to flow, move, run”). Cognate with Middle Low German uprinden (“to jump up”), Danish rende (“to run”). See run.

Sentences

For the generation of uniform random variates , see Random number generation .