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random

noun, adj, verb — 15 senses

random

noun

/ˈɹændəm/

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.

1

A roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance.

  • Still take advice ; though counsels, when they fly / At random, sometimes hit most happily.1648, Robert Herrick, Hesperides, London: H. G. Clarke and Co., published 1844, page 134:
  • O ! many a shaft, at random sent, / Finds mark the archer little meant !1815, Sir Walter Scott, The Lord of the Isles, page 216:
2

Obsolete Speed, full speed; impetuosity, force.

  • 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 raundon1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter X, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:
  • […] 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.1548, Edward Hall, “The triumphant reigne of Kyng Henry the VIII”, in The Union of the two noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke (Hall’s Chronicle), page 82v:
3

Obsolete The full range of a bullet or other projectile; hence, the angle at which a weapon is tilted to allow the greatest range.

  • Fortie yards will they shoot levell, or very neare the marke, and 120 is their best at Random.1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 144:
  • […] 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 […]1644, Sir Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises, page 125:
4

Colloquial, Figuratively An undefined, unknown or unimportant person; a person of no consequence.

  • 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]2026 May 22, Michael Hogan, “‘The days I had to have sex with randoms, I thought thank God!’ Jamie Bell on eye-popping drama Half Man”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
5

Business, Mining The direction of a rake-vein.

6

Media, Printing, Publishing Historical A frame for composing type.

  • Utilization of all floor space underneath case racks and randoms is another feature of the modern composing room; […]1935, Newspaper World, numbers 1930-1955, page 41:
  • Printers' frames and randoms2002, Republic of Korea, number 2, page 502:
Synonyms
vagrant
Derived terms
randy

random

adj

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.

8 senses
  1. 1Occurring for no particular reason; haphazard, unpredictable.
  2. 2Involving an outcome which is impossible to predict, but…
  3. 3Pseudorandom; mimicking the result of random selection.
  4. 4Selected for no particular reason; arbitrary; unspecified.
  5. 5Being (part of) a varied, unrelated, and apparently…
  6. 6Apropos of nothing; lacking context, relevance, or any…
  7. 7Of a person: characterized by or often saying random…
  8. 8Being out of the ordinary; unusual or unexpected; odd…
1

Occurring for no particular reason; haphazard, unpredictable.

  • Our city is plagued by random acts of violence.
  • random acts of kindness
2

Mathematics, Sciences, Statistics 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.
4 more examples
  • 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.
3

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Pseudorandom; mimicking the result of random selection.

  • The rand function generates a random number from a seed.
4

Informal 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?
2 more examples
  • 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.
5

Informal 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.
1 more example
  • I mixed a bunch of random vegetables into a salad, and it actually turned out pretty good.
6

Informal 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.
2 more examples
  • The teacher's bartending story was interesting, but very random.
  • I feel like pineapple is a very random thing to put on a pizza.
7

Informal 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.
8

UK, Slang Being out of the ordinary; unusual or unexpected; odd, strange, bizarre.

  • That's a rather random fact!
  • I can't believe he would say that. That's so random!
Derived terms
60 termsat 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

random

verb

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.

1

Uncommon To wander; to stray; to meander.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.