random
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
computing
engineering
mathematics
media
mining
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
printing
publishing
sciences
statistics
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.
Inflected forms:
form: randoms
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: more random
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most random
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: A roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Still take advice ; though counsels, when they fly / At random, sometimes hit most happily.
O ! many a shaft, at random sent, / Finds mark the archer little meant !
gloss: Speed, full speed; impetuosity, force.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: they were messagers vnto kyng Ban & Bors sent from kynge Arthur / therfor said the viij knyghtes ye shalle dye or be prysoners / for we ben knyghtes of kyng Claudas And therwith two of them dressid theire sperys / and Vlfyus and Brastias dressid theire speres and ranne to gyder with grete raundon
[…] 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.
gloss: The full range of a bullet or other projectile; hence, the angle at which a weapon is tilted to allow the greatest range.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: Fortie yards will they shoot levell, or very neare the marke, and 120 is their best at Random.
[…] the angle at which the miſſive is to mount by ( if we will have it go to its furtheſt randome ) muſt be the half of a right one […]
gloss: An undefined, unknown or unimportant person; a person of no consequence.
pos: noun
tags: colloquial
countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: The party was boring. It was full of randoms.
‘The days I had to have sex with randoms, I thought thank God!’ Jamie Bell on eye-popping drama Half Man [title]
gloss: The direction of a rake-vein.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A frame for composing type.
pos: noun
tags: countable
historical
uncountable
examples: Utilization of all floor space underneath case racks and randoms is another feature of the modern composing room; […]
Printers' frames and randoms
gloss: Occurring for no particular reason; haphazard, unpredictable.
pos: adj
examples: Our city is plagued by random acts of violence.
random acts of kindness
gloss: 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.
pos: adj
examples: Near-synonyms: aleatory, stochastic
The flip of a fair coin is purely random.
The newspaper conducted a random sample of five hundred American teenagers.
The results of the field survey look random by several different measures.
A toss of a loaded die is still random, though biased.
July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Riseshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-dark-knight-rises-review-batman,82624/
Where the Joker preys on our fears of random, irrational acts of terror, Bane has an all-consuming, dictatorial agenda that’s more stable and permanent, a New World Order that’s been planned out with the precision of a military coup.
gloss: Pseudorandom; mimicking the result of random selection.
pos: adj
examples: The rand function generates a random number from a seed.
gloss: Selected for no particular reason; arbitrary; unspecified.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: A random American off the street couldn't tell the difference.
You're just going to trust the word of random people on the Internet?
I didn't have time to peruse the resturant's menu, so I just ordered some random dish.
Whatever random hobby you're into, there's an Internet community for it.
gloss: Being (part of) a varied, unrelated, and apparently arbitrary collection of things; diverse, heterogeneous.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: My notebook has turned into a random collection of thoughts.
I brought a bunch of random snacks, but nothing nutritious.
I mixed a bunch of random vegetables into a salad, and it actually turned out pretty good.
gloss: Apropos of nothing; lacking context, relevance, or any connection to the previous situation; unexpected.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: This random guy just came up to me to say that he was a fan of my work.
Thank you for that completely random comment... now, let's get back to our actual topic of discussion.
The teacher's bartending story was interesting, but very random.
I feel like pineapple is a very random thing to put on a pizza.
gloss: Of a person: characterized by or often saying random things; habitually using non sequiturs.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: You're so random! I never know what you're going to do next.
gloss: Being out of the ordinary; unusual or unexpected; odd, strange, bizarre.
pos: adj
tags: UK
slang
examples: That's a rather random fact!
I can't believe he would say that. That's so random!
Synonyms: vagrant
Derived words: randy
at random
bi-random
dynamic random access memory
Fischer random chess
hypergeometric random variable
lolrandom
non-random
nonrandom
non-volatile random access memory
normal random variable
programmed random occurrence
pseudorandom
quasirandom
rando
random access
random-access
random access memory
random-access memory
random act of kindness
random camping
random encounter
randomer
random forest
random function
random glucose
randomicity
randomisation
randomise
randomize
randomish
random-ish
randomista
randomity
randomization
randomless
random-like
randomlike
randomly
randomness
random neural network
random number
random number generator
random number god
randomosity
random process
random sample
random seed
random sequence
random telegraph noise
random variable
random walk
random walker
randomwise
randumb
resistive random access memory
semi-random
semirandom
standard normal random variable
static random access memory
unrandom
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: произволен
roman: proizvolen
lang: Catalan
word: qualsevol
lang: Czech
word: průměrný
lang: Czech
word: náhodný
lang: Czech
word: neodlišitelný
lang: Esperanto
word: hazarda
lang: Esperanto
word: hazardeca
lang: Finnish
word: tavallinen
lang: Finnish
word: satunnainen
lang: French
word: moyen
lang: German
word: Durchschnitts-
lang: Hungarian
word: átlagos
lang: Hungarian
word: közönséges
lang: Hungarian
word: szokványos
lang: Hungarian
word: random
lang: Japanese
word: 任意の
roman: nin'i no
lang: Japanese
word: 適当な
roman: tekitō na
lang: Japanese
word: 平均的な
roman: heikin-teki na
lang: Macedonian
word: случаен
roman: slučaen
lang: Polish
word: przeciętny
lang: Polish
word: statystyczny
lang: Russian
word: случа́йный
roman: slučájnyj
lang: Russian
word: пе́рвый попа́вшийся
roman: pérvyj popávšijsja
lang: Russian
word: произво́льный
roman: proizvólʹnyj
lang: Slovak
word: ktorýkoľvek
lang: Slovak
word: ľubovoľný
lang: Spanish
word: random
lang: Spanish
word: al azar
lang: Swedish
word: vanlig
lang: Thai
word: เฉลี่ย
roman: chà-lìia