random
Forms
- Plural
- randoms
- Comparative
- more random
- Superlative
- most random
- present (v1)
- random
- past (v2)
- randomed
- past participle (v3)
- randomed
- present participle
- randoming
- 3rd person singular
- randoms
Definitions
1.A roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance.
- O ! many a shaft, at random sent, / Finds mark the archer little meant !
- Still take advice ; though counsels, when they fly / At random, sometimes hit most happily.
2.An undefined, unknown or unimportant person; a person of no consequence.(colloquial)
- The party was boring. It was full of randoms.
3.The direction of a rake-vein.
1.Occurring for no particular reason; haphazard, unpredictable.
- Our city is plagued by random acts of violence.
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.
- The flip of a fair coin is purely random.
- A toss of a loaded die is still random, though biased.
- The results of the field survey look random by several different measures.
3.Selected for no particular reason; arbitrary; unspecified.(informal)
- 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?
- Whatever random hobby you're into, there's an Internet community for it.
4.Pseudorandom; mimicking the result of random selection.
- The rand function generates a random number from a seed.
1.To wander; to stray; to meander.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3091
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
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”).