Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- adj. Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective: random movements. See Synonyms at chance.
- adj. Mathematics & Statistics Of or relating to a type of circumstance or event that is described by a probability distribution.
- adj. Of or relating to an event in which all outcomes are equally likely, as in the testing of a blood sample for the presence of a substance.
- idiom at random Without a governing design, method, or purpose; unsystematically: chose a card at random from the deck.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- adj. Having unpredictable outcomes and, in the ideal case, all outcomes equally probable; resulting from such selection; lacking statistical correlation.
- adj. Of or relating to probability distribution.
- adj. Pseudorandom in contrast to truly random; mimicking the result of random selection.
- adj. Representative and undistinguished; typical and average; selected for no particular reason.
- adj. Apropos of nothing; lacking context; unexpected; having apparent lack of plan, cause, or reason.
- adj. Characterized by or often saying random things; habitually using non sequiturs.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- adj. Going at random or by chance; done or made at hazard, or without settled direction, aim, or purpose; hazarded without previous calculation; left to chance; haphazard.
- adj. of, pertaining to, or resulting from a process of selection from a starting set of items, in which the probability of selecting any one object in the starting set is equal to the probability of selecting any other.
- adj. of unequal size or shape; made from components of unequal size or shape.
- n. Force; violence.
- n. A roving motion; course without definite direction; want of direction, rule, or method; hazard; chance; -- commonly used in the phrase at random, that is, without a settled point of direction; at hazard.
- n. Distance to which a missile is cast; range; reach.
- n. The direction of a rake-vein.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Proceeding, taken, done, or existing at random; aimless; fortuitous; haphazard; casual.
- n. Something done or produced without definite method, or with irregular or haphazard effect.
- n. In dyeing, clouded yarn. See random yarn, under I.
- n. A rushing, as of a torrent; an impetuous course; impetuosity; violence; force: especially with great, as in the phrase a great random, with great speed or force.
- n. A rush; spurt; gush.
- n. A continuous flow of words; a harangue.
- n. An indeterminate course or proceeding; hence, lack of direction, rule, or method; haphazard; chance: used only in the phrase at random—that is, in a haphazard, aimless, and purely fortuitous manner.
- n. The distance traversed by a missile; range; reach.
- n. In mining, the direction of a rake-vein.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adj. lacking any definite plan or order or purpose; governed by or depending on chance
Etymologies
Examples
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And the only choice other than random is *not random*.
Kicking the Legs Out From Under the Willfully Ignorant « Whatever
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( "UPDATE login SET random = $random WHERE id = $id"
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He said the sector remains too focused on charity -- what I call random acts of kindness -- rather than strategic investments.
Akhtar Badshah: Philanthropy on Trial: Is the Impact on Society Justifiable?
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"Mortgage rates follow what we call a random walk, and don't bounce back from lows like most people assume," he says.
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Just hanging out and what we call random hallway parties.
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SARAH TEALE, FILMMAKER, "DEALING DOGS": A class-B dealer is someone who deals with what they call random-source dogs.
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But, she argues, we can still hold the former group, i.e., that which she calls a random collection of individuals, responsible for the violence done to victims, since, if they had tried, they could have come up with such decision-making procedures themselves.
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It was not that his spirits were visibly high — he would never, in the concert of pleasure, touch the big drum by so much as a knuckle: he had a mortal dislike to the high, ragged note, to what he called random ravings.
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It was not that his spirits were visibly high -- he would never, in the concert of pleasure, touch the big drum by so much as a knuckle: he had a mortal dislike to the high, ragged note, to what he called random ravings.
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The lawmakers said they are concerned about what they call random budget cuts, big raises for some employees, and whether the school is shortchanging its agricultural programs.
vanishedone commented on the word random
Looking at the other examples, I am struck by how little randomness is in the selection of the 'random, horrific attack' ones.
November 26, 2009
vanishedone commented on the word random
Learn English with Vexamples, and learn about technology at the same time!
Anyway: has anyone yet some across a page with whitespace in the word string while using the Random Word feature, or does it produce only single (and hyphenated) words? I'm beginning to suspect it's restricted in the same manner as Recently Viewed (though given the sheer size of the database now, it'll be hard to tell without confirmation from John & co.); and if it is, then it's clearly inferior to classic Wordie's.
November 26, 2009
seanahan commented on the word random
I have a lot of statistics, but I still find myself using random colloquially to mean a variety of things. Sometimes I refer to things as stochastic just to mix it up.
September 17, 2009
thesaraheffect commented on the word random
one of the most misused words in my experience, right up there with peruse: "OMG, why would you say that? You are so random, Sarah!"
(No, actually I said that on purpose.)
"Have you heard of this wordie site? Yeah, it's this great site that I randomly found when I googled 'wordie' the other day!"
(Randomly, really?)
September 17, 2009
PossibleUnderscore commented on the word random
Summed up in two words: cow poo.
July 18, 2009
plethora commented on the word random
Pfft!
Noone says "like, wow."
:P
October 1, 2008
dontcry commented on the word random
Let's keep a good thought.
October 1, 2008
dhuber commented on the word random
Way, way too much, "like wow! That was random..." going around these days. Though, thankfully, it seems to be a dying trend.
October 1, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word random
New Wordies might be confused by this conversation, so the official Wordie historian will now explain that
in the past, the random feature URI was http://wordie.org/words/random, i.e. the same as this page.
September 9, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word random
wow so I'm here! I feel so alone, though...
June 13, 2008
bilby commented on the word random
Definitely my favourite rhyme for fandom.
June 12, 2008
kewpid commented on the word random
Oh noes, you clicked! What horrors hath thee unleashed?
June 12, 2008
sonofgroucho commented on the word random
Who would have though this word would have generated so much conversation?
November 11, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word random
Oh no, did I delete a good list? I could only find two words, so I decided to chuck it. I'm such a minimalist!
Hee-hee.
October 9, 2007
seanahan commented on the word random
John, I have noticed that every time I fix anything I break three other things. Welcome to software development.
October 9, 2007
uselessness commented on the word random
No prob, at least you're quick to amend. ;-) Also, I saw jennarenn added , and I thought "that's pretty cool." Now I don't want to add it, but it's worthy of a favorite. But that generates a 500 error. :-(
October 9, 2007
john commented on the word random
I unbroke it. Has anyone else noticed that every time I add a new feature, I break three existing ones?
October 8, 2007
uselessness commented on the word random
Oh noes, the random word function done BROKED!!
October 8, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word random
Oh, how cool!!! I'm a big fan of the 'random word' function. :) Most of the words I've found are only listed by one or two people.
July 11, 2007
reesetee commented on the word random
Yeah, that'll happen. :-)
July 11, 2007
uselessness commented on the word random
Hey, that's cool! It's also reassuring to see how many words on the site don't have comments yet, when I start to think we might be running out of stuff to talk about. ;-)
July 11, 2007
reesetee commented on the word random
Thanks, John! I noticed you also expanded our dictionary/reference selection (two Google links!). What fun!
July 11, 2007
john commented on the word random
The kind of word you get when you click here, or on the 'random word' link that's now at the bottom of every page.
July 11, 2007
brtom commented on the word random
December 2, 2006