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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle: stopped at the first motel we passed, an arbitrary choice.
  2. adj. Based on or subject to individual judgment or preference: The diet imposes overall calorie limits, but daily menus are arbitrary.
  3. adj. Established by a court or judge rather than by a specific law or statute: an arbitrary penalty.
  4. adj. Not limited by law; despotic: the arbitrary rule of a dictator.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Not regulated by fixed rule or law; determinable as occasion arises; subject to individual will or judgment; discretionary.
  2. In law, properly determinable by the choice or pleasure of a tribunal, as distinguished from that which should be determined according to settled rules or the relative rights or equities of the parties. Thus, whether the judge will take and state an account himself, or refer it to an auditor, is a question resting in his arbitrary discretion; whether, also, a particular person is qualified to act as auditor is a question involving judicial or legal discretion.
  3. Uncontrolled by law; using or abusing unlimited power; despotic; tyrannical.
  4. Not characterized by or manifesting any overruling principle; fixed, determined, or performed at will; independent of rule or control.
  5. Ungoverned by reason; hence, capricious; uncertain; unreasonable; varying; changeful: as, an arbitrary character.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.
  2. adj. Determined by impulse rather than reason; heavy-handed.
  3. adj. mathematics Any and all possible.
  4. adj. Determined by independent arbiter.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Depending on will or discretion; not governed by any fixed rules
  2. adj. Exercised according to one's own will or caprice, and therefore conveying a notion of a tendency to abuse the possession of power.
  3. adj. Despotic; absolute in power; bound by no law; harsh and unforbearing; tyrannical.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. based on or subject to individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English arbitrarie, Latin arbitrarius ("arbitrary, uncertain"), from arbiter ("witness, on-looker, listener, judge, overseer") (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English arbitrarie, from Latin arbitrārius, from arbiter, arbitr-, arbiter; see arbiter. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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‘arbitrary’ has been looked up 7702 times, loved by 22 people, added to 121 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.