random
A roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance.
Noun 3 meanings
A roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance.
An undefined, unknown or unimportant person; a person of no consequence.
“The party was boring. It was full of randoms.”
The direction of a rake-vein.
Adjective 4 meanings
Occurring for no particular reason; haphazard, unpredictable.
“Our city is plagued by random acts of violence.”
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”
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.”
Verb 1 meaning
To wander; to stray; to meander.
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”).
Similar and opposite words
RANDOM at a glance
RANDOM has 6 letters and scores 9 points in Scrabble (R 1 + A 1 + N 1 + D 2 + O 1 + M 3) and 11 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #2,533 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with random
All rhymesOne letter away
- RANSOM8
- FANDOM12
- RANDOS7
- RANDON7
- MANDOM11
- RANDEM9
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