random
/ˈɹændəm/ adjective C2- Occurring for no particular reason; haphazard, unpredictable. · Our city is plagued by random acts of violence.· random acts of kindness
- 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. · Near-synonyms: aleatory, stochastic· The flip of a fair coin is purely random.
- Pseudorandom; mimicking the result of random selection. · The rand function generates a random number from a seed.
- Selected for no particular reason; arbitrary; unspecified. · 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?
- Being (part of) a varied, unrelated, and apparently arbitrary collection of things; diverse, heterogeneous. · My notebook has turned into a random collection of thoughts.· I brought a bunch of random snacks, but nothing nutritious.
- Apropos of nothing; lacking context, relevance, or any connection to the previous situation; unexpected. · 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.
- Of a person: characterized by or often saying random things; habitually using non sequiturs. · You're so random! I never know what you're going to do next.
From the library
Finally he lit his pipe, and sitting in the inglenook of the old village inn he talked slowly and at random about his case, rather as one who thinks aloud than as one who makes a considered statement.
He little thought of this when he made that random shot.
He could see that she was vastly impressed by this vague talk, so he endorsed his pose by random insinuations concerning great wealth, and mentioned familiarly a few names that are handled reverently by the proletariat.
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