Arbitrary
adjective
Based on random choice or personal desire, not any rules or system.
The bus company has arbitrarily increased the fare.
Often appears as...
- arbitrarily decided
- arbitrarily chosen
adjective
Decided by a judge or arbitrator rather than a procedure, rule, or law.
Arbitrary punishments were given out.
Often appears as...
- arbitrary decision
- arbitrary action
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Technical
adjective
Not proportional or fit.
The results showed an arbitrary discrepancy.
Often appears as...
- arbitrary discrepancy
- arbitrary difference
Usage tips
Academic
adjective
Based on random choice or personal desire, not any rules or system.
The bus company has arbitrarily increased the fare.
Often appears as...
- arbitrarily decided
- arbitrarily chosen
adjective
Decided by a judge or arbitrator rather than a procedure, rule, or law.
Arbitrary punishments were given out.
Often appears as...
- arbitrary decision
- arbitrary action
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Technical
adjective
Not proportional or fit.
The results showed an arbitrary discrepancy.
Often appears as...
- arbitrary discrepancy
- arbitrary difference
Usage tips
Academic
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/2Lack of Reason
When something is arbitrary, it might seem unfair because it lacks a clear reason or system behind it.
Choosing participants by drawing names is arbitrary.
Pro Tip 2/2Personal Choice
Arbitrary decisions are often based on someone's own preferences, rather than any objective criteria.
The teacher's arbitrary favorite changed weekly.
Pro Tip 1/2Lack of Reason
When something is arbitrary, it might seem unfair because it lacks a clear reason or system behind it.
Choosing participants by drawing names is arbitrary.
Pro Tip 2/2Personal Choice
Arbitrary decisions are often based on someone's own preferences, rather than any objective criteria.
The teacher's arbitrary favorite changed weekly.
Pro Tip 1/2Lack of Reason
When something is arbitrary, it might seem unfair because it lacks a clear reason or system behind it.
Choosing participants by drawing names is arbitrary.
Pro Tip 2/2Personal Choice
Arbitrary decisions are often based on someone's own preferences, rather than any objective criteria.
The teacher's arbitrary favorite changed weekly.
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Video examples
Mind Blown - Hangout to...
you like the lamp first or the candle first of the fireplace first and they were given some arbitrary answer like how about the fireplace or how about the candle like they would have just like said whatever they think should be lit first without realizing that the match is kind of a prerequisite to lighting anything so the match is obviously
Video examples
Making a touchscreen...
molecules they interact with is represented by a physical object that you can hold in your hand and this sensing technology can be built into almost any tabletop surface it's tileable so we can build interactive surfaces of arbitrary size and this isn't a prototype or approve of it's something out there in the world
Video examples
How statistics can be...
than data divided into misleading or arbitrary categories. All we can do is carefully study the actual situations the statistics describe and consider whether lurking variables may be present. Otherwise, we leave ourselves vulnerable to those who would use data to manipulate others and promote their own agendas.
Video examples
This deep-sea mystery is...
So why is it that the rest of biology moves so fast? Why does a cell die after a day and a human dies after only a hundred years? These seem like really arbitrarily short limits when you think about the total amount of time in the universe. But these are not arbitrary limits.
Video examples
Computing a theory of...
It doesn't take lots of technology or biological evolution to be able to do arbitrary computation; just something that happens, naturally, all over the place. Things with rules as simple as these can do it. Well, this has deep implications about the limits of science,
Video examples
I am the son of a...
reading books and watching TV or playing video games. For those reasons, my social skills were lacking, to say the least, and growing up in a bigoted household, I wasn't prepared for the real world. I'd been raised to judge people based on arbitrary measurements,
Video examples
Are we living in a...
as all non-living material around them, proliferating and radiating into an incredible ray of complex life forms. All of this— living and inanimate, microscopic and cosmic— is governed by mathematical laws with apparently arbitrary constants. And this opens up a
Video examples
Elon Musk: The future...
You can go much further deep than you can go up. The deepest mines are much deeper than the tallest buildings are tall, so you can alleviate any arbitrary level of urban congestion with a 3D tunnel network. This is a very important point.
Video examples
Can you solve the...
But on the hundredth morning after your visit, all the prisoners are gone, each having asked to leave the previous night. So how did you outsmart the dictator? It might help to realize that the amount of prisoners is arbitrary.
Video examples
Why does the universe...
Don't believe him. It's a pious hope, I wish it were true, but I think the other day he admitted to me it's really an ugly universe. It's stupidly constructed, it's got way too many arbitrary coupling constants and mass ratios
Video examples
Mind Blown - Hangout to...
you like the lamp first or the candle first of the fireplace first and they were given some arbitrary answer like how about the fireplace or how about the candle like they would have just like said whatever they think should be lit first without realizing that the match is kind of a prerequisite to lighting anything so the match is obviously
Video examples
Making a touchscreen...
molecules they interact with is represented by a physical object that you can hold in your hand and this sensing technology can be built into almost any tabletop surface it's tileable so we can build interactive surfaces of arbitrary size and this isn't a prototype or approve of it's something out there in the world
Video examples
How statistics can be...
than data divided into misleading or arbitrary categories. All we can do is carefully study the actual situations the statistics describe and consider whether lurking variables may be present. Otherwise, we leave ourselves vulnerable to those who would use data to manipulate others and promote their own agendas.
Video examples
This deep-sea mystery is...
So why is it that the rest of biology moves so fast? Why does a cell die after a day and a human dies after only a hundred years? These seem like really arbitrarily short limits when you think about the total amount of time in the universe. But these are not arbitrary limits.
Video examples
Computing a theory of...
It doesn't take lots of technology or biological evolution to be able to do arbitrary computation; just something that happens, naturally, all over the place. Things with rules as simple as these can do it. Well, this has deep implications about the limits of science,
Video examples
I am the son of a...
reading books and watching TV or playing video games. For those reasons, my social skills were lacking, to say the least, and growing up in a bigoted household, I wasn't prepared for the real world. I'd been raised to judge people based on arbitrary measurements,
Video examples
Are we living in a...
as all non-living material around them, proliferating and radiating into an incredible ray of complex life forms. All of this— living and inanimate, microscopic and cosmic— is governed by mathematical laws with apparently arbitrary constants. And this opens up a
Video examples
Elon Musk: The future...
You can go much further deep than you can go up. The deepest mines are much deeper than the tallest buildings are tall, so you can alleviate any arbitrary level of urban congestion with a 3D tunnel network. This is a very important point.
Video examples
Can you solve the...
But on the hundredth morning after your visit, all the prisoners are gone, each having asked to leave the previous night. So how did you outsmart the dictator? It might help to realize that the amount of prisoners is arbitrary.
Video examples
Why does the universe...
Don't believe him. It's a pious hope, I wish it were true, but I think the other day he admitted to me it's really an ugly universe. It's stupidly constructed, it's got way too many arbitrary coupling constants and mass ratios
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Jesse Eisenberg
American Actor
I don't concern myself with thinking ahead to the finished product. I focus more specifically on what the character is experiencing. Once you relieve yourself of the very arbitrary and always punishing pressure of what an audience is expecting you to do, acting becomes a lot more fun and pure.
Quote examples
Julian Baggini
British Author
No genuine choice is ever simply a matter of the arbitrary exercise of will. Take your choice of lunch today. You can't decide to want anything, but what you want will at least in part be a result of a series of other choices and judgments you've made in your life to date.
Quote examples
Nate Silver
American Writer
You can build a statistical model and that's all well and good, but if you're dealing with a new type of financial instrument, for example, or a new type of situation - then the choices you're making are pretty arbitrary in a lot of respects.
Quote examples
Iskra Lawrence
English Model
I refuse to let something as insignificant as a size or number on a scale determine how I feel about myself. I am grateful for my body, my health, and the life that I have, and no arbitrary number should have any impact on that.
Quote examples
Rick Renzi
American Politician
I believe there should be no arbitrary date set for withdrawal and yet no permanent, unending deployment. No cut and run, yet measured progress in helping a people who want to be free without an illusion of overnight success.
Quote examples
Paul Singer
American Businessman
It is a very bad idea for governments to create arbitrary and unfair outcomes, or outcomes resulting from the passions and whims of the government rather than from the law, just because they have the power to do so.
Quote examples
Tim Minchin
Australian Comedian
If you make a good show, you tend to get good reviews. I don't believe it is as arbitrary as some people tend to think, which artists do to protect themselves against bad reviews.
Quote examples
Terry Teachout
American Critic
Limitations, be they practical or arbitrary, force artists to dig more deeply instead of settling for easy answers.
Quote examples
Rudy Rucker
American Scientist
Science fiction writers put characters into a world with arbitrary rules and work out what happens.
Quote examples
Paul Auster
American Author
People who don't like my work say that the connections seem too arbitrary. But that's how life is.
Quote examples
Jesse Eisenberg
American Actor
I don't concern myself with thinking ahead to the finished product. I focus more specifically on what the character is experiencing. Once you relieve yourself of the very arbitrary and always punishing pressure of what an audience is expecting you to do, acting becomes a lot more fun and pure.
Quote examples
Julian Baggini
British Author
No genuine choice is ever simply a matter of the arbitrary exercise of will. Take your choice of lunch today. You can't decide to want anything, but what you want will at least in part be a result of a series of other choices and judgments you've made in your life to date.
Quote examples
Nate Silver
American Writer
You can build a statistical model and that's all well and good, but if you're dealing with a new type of financial instrument, for example, or a new type of situation - then the choices you're making are pretty arbitrary in a lot of respects.
Quote examples
Iskra Lawrence
English Model
I refuse to let something as insignificant as a size or number on a scale determine how I feel about myself. I am grateful for my body, my health, and the life that I have, and no arbitrary number should have any impact on that.
Quote examples
Rick Renzi
American Politician
I believe there should be no arbitrary date set for withdrawal and yet no permanent, unending deployment. No cut and run, yet measured progress in helping a people who want to be free without an illusion of overnight success.
Quote examples
Paul Singer
American Businessman
It is a very bad idea for governments to create arbitrary and unfair outcomes, or outcomes resulting from the passions and whims of the government rather than from the law, just because they have the power to do so.
Quote examples
Tim Minchin
Australian Comedian
If you make a good show, you tend to get good reviews. I don't believe it is as arbitrary as some people tend to think, which artists do to protect themselves against bad reviews.
Quote examples
Terry Teachout
American Critic
Limitations, be they practical or arbitrary, force artists to dig more deeply instead of settling for easy answers.
Quote examples
Rudy Rucker
American Scientist
Science fiction writers put characters into a world with arbitrary rules and work out what happens.
Quote examples
Paul Auster
American Author
People who don't like my work say that the connections seem too arbitrary. But that's how life is.
Example 1 of 10
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