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Definition: Random |
RandomAdjective1. Lacking any definite plan or order or purpose; governed by or depending on chance; "a random choice"; "bombs fell at random"; "random movements". 2. Taken haphazardly; "a random choice". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "random" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Random adj. 1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition); weird. "The system's been behaving pretty randomly." 2. Assorted; undistinguished. "Who was at the conference?" "Just a bunch of random business types." 3. (pejorative) Frivolous; unproductive; undirected. "He's just a random loser." 4. Incoherent or inelegant; poorly chosen; not well organized. "The program has a random set of misfeatures." "That's a random name for that function." "Well, all the names were chosen pretty randomly." 5. In no particular order, though deterministic. "The I/O channels are in a pool, and when a file is opened one is chosen randomly." 6. Arbitrary. "It generates a random name for the scratch file." 7. Gratuitously wrong, i.e., poorly done and for no good apparent reason. For example, a program that handles file name defaulting in a particularly useless way, or an assembler routine that could easily have been coded using only three registers, but redundantly uses seven for values with non-overlapping lifetimes, so that no one else can invoke it without first saving four extra registers. What randomness! 8. n. A random hacker; used particularly of high-school students who soak up computer time and generally get in the way. 9. n. Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone not known to the hacker speaking); the noun form of sense 2. "I went to the talk, but the audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions". 10. n. (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall. See also J. Random, some random X. 11. [UK] Conversationally, a non sequitur or something similarly out-of-the-blue. As in: "Stop being so random!" This sense equates to `hatstand', taken from the Viz comic character "Roger Irrelevant - He's completely Hatstand.". Source: Jargon File. |
Aerospace | Eluding precise prediction, completely irregular. Compare stochastic.In connection with probability and statistics, the term random implies collective or long-run regularity; thus, a long record of the behavior of a random phenomenon presumably gives a fair indication of its general behavior in another long record, although the individual observations have no discernible system of progression. (references) |
Electrical Engineering | Governed by the laws of chance, unpredictable, non-deterministic. Source: European Union. (references) |
Literature | Random (Roderick). A young Scotch scapegrace in quest of fortune; at one time basking in prosperity, at another in utter destitution. He is led into different countries, whose peculiarities are described; and into all sorts of society, as that of wits, sharpers, courtiers, courtesans, and so on. Though occasionally lavish, he is inherently mean; and though possessing a dash of humour, is contemptibly revengeful. His treatment of Strap is revolting to a generous mind. Strap lends him money in his necessity, but the heartless Roderick wastes the loan, treats Strap as a mere servant, fleeces him at dice, and cuffs him when the game is adverse. (Smollett: Roderick Random.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Mathematics | This word may be taken as representing an undefined idea, or, if defined, must be expressed in terms of the concept of probability. A process of selection applied to a set of objects is said to be random of it gives to each one a known and non-zero chance of being chosen. Generally, the use of the word "random" implies that the process under consideration is in some sense probabilistic. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | The direction of a rake vein. (references) |
Slang | Verb. Source: Unknown. Definition: Something is unexpected. Context: When the CD player is playing a bad song, someone yells random. Then the CD will choose a new song. Social Source: Red Mill employees, Seattle WA. Source: Compiled by The University of Oregon. (additional references) |
Statistics | Said of events that are unpredictable because of their occurrence is unrelated to their characteristics. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In ordinary language, the word random is used to express apparent lack of purpose or cause.Randomness should also not be confused with unpredictability, as demonstrated by the existence of deterministic chaos. As another example, the increase of the world human population is quite predictable, but individual births and deaths cannot be accurately predicted in many cases; this small-scale randomness is found in almost all real-world systems, if not as strikingly. Ohm's Law and the Kinetic Theory of Gases also depend on large-scale compliance with statistical rules which have no absolute reality.
Defining randomness is a hard problem in modern science, mathematics, psychology and philosophy.
Randomness in philosophy
Note that the bias that "everything has a purpose or cause" is actually implicit in the expression "apparent lack of purpose or cause". Humans are always looking for patterns in their experience, and the most basic pattern seems to be cause/effect. This appears to be deeply embedded in the human brain, and perhaps in other animals as well. For example, dogs and cats often have been reported to have apparently made a cause and effect connection that strikes us as amusing or peculiar. For instance there is a report of a dog who, after a visit to a vet whose clinic had tile floors of a particular kind, refused thereafter to go near such a tiled floor, whether or not it was at a vet's.
It is because of this bias that the absence of a cause seems problematic. See causation .
To solve this 'problem', random events are sometimes said to be caused by chance. Rather than solving the problem of randomness, this opens the gaping hole of the ontological status of chance. It is hard to avoid circularity by defining chance in terms of randomness.
Randomness in natural science
Traditionally, randomness takes on an operational meaning in natural science: something is apparently random if its cause cannot be determined or controlled. When an experiment is performed and all the control variables are fixed, the remaining variation is ascribed to uncontrolled (ie, 'random') influences. The assumption, again, is that if it were somehow possible to perfectly control all influences, the result of the experiment would be always the same. Therefore, for most of the history of science, randomness has been interpreted in one way or another as ignorance on the part of the observer.
With the advent of quantum mechanics, however, it appears that the world might be irreducibly random. According to the standard interpretations of the theory, it is possible (and in fact very, very easy) to set up an experiment with total control of all relevant parameters, which will still have a perfectly random outcome. The resistance to this idea takes the form of hidden variable theories in which the outcome of the experiment is determined by certain unobservable characteristics (hence the name "hidden variables").
Many physical processes resulting from quantum-mechanical effects are, therefore, believed to be irreducibly random. The best-known example is the timing of radioactive decay events in radioactive substances.
Randomness in mathematics
The mathematical theory of probability arose from attempts to formulate mathematical descriptions of chance events, originally in the context of gambling but soon in connection with situations of interest in physics. Statistics is used to deduce the underlying probability distribution of a collection of empirical observations.
For the purposes of simulation it is necessary to have a large supply of random numbers, or means to generate them on demand. Algorithmic information theory studies, among other topics, what constitutes a random sequence.
Randomness in practical communications
Access to a source of high-quality randomness is absolutely critical in many applications of cryptography. For example, even a subtly non-random key choice may result in a complete break into a communications channel that was believed to have been secure and was relied upon to be so. See the Enigma article for an example of the consequences of such a misestimate. Keys used for the Enigma were non-random in many cases which made it possible for Allied cryptanalysts to break into the traffic with substantial consequences for the Nazi war effort. A similar thing happened in the Pacific theater of WWII with the Japanese 'Purple' machine (qv); its key selection was also insufficiently random.
This is an attempt at fleshing out the stub below. Please contribute by picking bits from below the line and developing them above it
Randomness is central to games of chance and vital to the gambling industry. The book The Eudaemonic Pie (ISBN 0595142362) is the story of an attempt to exploit non-randomness in the gaming industry. Some of the students involved have gone on to significant careers in physics and in computer science.
Random draws are often used to make a decision where no rational or fair basis exists for making a deterministic decision.
Deviations from randomness are often regarded by parapsychologists as evidence for the theories of parapsychology.
Quotations:
Books:
- "Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random." -- Donald E. Knuth
See also:
- Randomness by Deborah J. Bennett. Harvard University Press, 1998. ISBN 0674107454
- The Art of Computer Programming. Vol. 2: Seminumerical Algorithms, 3rd ed. by Donald E. Knuth, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997. ISBN 0-201-89684-2
External links:
- Chaos theory
- Determinism
- Free will
- Game theory
- Information entropy
- Probability theory
- Pseudorandomness
- Pseudorandom number generator
- Hardware random number generator
- Quantum mechanics
- Random variable
- Random number
- Random sequence
- Stochastic process
- Can you behave randomly?
- Random.org
- Chaitin: Randomness and Mathematical Proof
- A Pseudorandom Number Sequence Test Program (Public Domain)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Randomness."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| MOS RAM | English | Metal-oxide silicon random access memory | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Antonym: nonrandom (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Arrangement | Adjective: deranged; Verb: syncretic, syncretistic; mussy, messy; flaky; random, unordered. |
Chance 2 | Noun: chance, indetermination, accident, fortune, hazard, hap, haphazard, chance medley, random, luck, raccroc, casualty, contingence, adventure, hit; fate; (necessity); equal chance; lottery; tombola; toss up; turn of the table, turn of the cards; hazard of the die, chapter of accidents, fickle finger of fate; cast of the dice, throw of the dice; heads or tails, flip of a coin, wheel of Fortune; sortes, sortes Virgilianae. |
Adjective: casual, fortuitous, accidental, causeless, incidental, contingent, uncaused, undetermined, indeterminate; random, statistical; possible; unintentional. | |
Uncertainty | Adjective: uncertain; casual; random; (aimless); changeable. |
Vehicle | Dogcart, trap, whitechapel, buggy, four-in-hand, unicorn, random, tandem; shandredhan, char-a-bancs. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Life is just a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes (Reality Bites; writing credit: Helen Childress) Great storms announce themselves with a single breeze, and a single random spark can ignite the fires of rebellion (Ladyhawke; writing credit: Edward Khmara) Joel, the concept of random death in an indifferent world is one thing, but to e the instrument of that death (Northern Exposure; writing credit: Khadijah Hashim) Listen you didn't chose this one at random (Vajont - La diga del disonore; writing credit: Pietro Calderoni; Renzo Martinelli) The shrill voice, the bossy tone, the random hatred of all things that bounce (That '70s Show; writing credit: Stacia Raymond) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Random Acts of Violence (2002) Romance at Random (1916) Random Acts of Intimacy (2002) The Random Years (2002) Random Passage (2001) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals |
| ||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
| ||
Consumer Goods |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Sideroblasts are erythroblasts with fine, iron-containing granules in the cytoplasm. Normal sideroblasts show random iron deposits, typically 1-5, in the cytoplasm. Abnormal sideroblasts show an increase of granular iron deposits around the nucleus. Credit: CDC. |  | Strolling along the beach looking for the random treasure. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Random rocks and barnacle picked up on the beach at Gig Harbor. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Fish nets, fishing boats, and the random sea gull. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | This image shows a control site at the Mona Island reef. Control sites were selected at random to measure conditions of the reef outside the impacted area. Control sites help scientists determine the success of the restoration effort by later comparing conditions at the control site with those within the restoration areas. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | I opened my arithmetic at random. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Some random opinions of a recent disturbance. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Random photos 1" by Samantha Marie Commentary: "Just a random photo." | "Random 4" by A D Commentary: "Photogenic household items/appliances." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Ambient spacy texture with random hits on the electric bass. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Life, the Universe and Everything | Douglas Adams | She didn't even programme any coordinates, she hadn't the faintest idea where she was going, she just went - a random row of dots flowing through the Universe |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He hired a cabriolet by the hour, jumped in, and drove at random towards the Latin quarter |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | He could not grip the floor with his feet and sat heavily at his desk, opening one of his books at random and poring over it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Followup of a random sample of patients initially identified as negatives. (references) | |
If not neutralized, free radicals can accumulate and cause random damage to the DNA and proteins within cells. (references) | ||
Studies in the United States have focused largely on XXY males identified in infancy from large random samples. (references) | ||
Business | Presently, anybody driving a car or walking the streets could be a random carjacking (“secuestro al paso”) victim. (references) | |
In this case, labels must be submitted along with the commodities at the time the mechanism of random selection is performed. (references) | ||
In March, nine soldiers in uniform, under the influence of alcohol, sought out and assaulted at random three foreigners in the city of Detmold. (references) | ||
Children | Japan | Whereas in 1998 INTERPOL estimated that 80 percent of Internet sites with child pornography originated in Japan, by late 1999, after passage of the law, the police reported most of these sites either had disappeared entirely or were accessible only at random hours to avoid detection and arrest. (references) |
Civil Liberties | Belarus | The security forces encircled the peaceful protest and beat demonstrators at random. (references) |
Colombia | The FARC restricted the movement of journalists in the despeje through blockades and random identity checks. (references) | |
Economic History | Kenya | Goods with a value of less than $5,000 will be subject to a random inspection by a government import auditor. (references) |
Taiwan | At the same time, inspectors from the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection were authorized to perform random factory visits to ensure compliance. (references) | |
Somalia | The present political situation in much of Somalia is one of anarchy, marked by inter-clan fighting and random banditry, with some areas of peace and stability. (references) | |
Human Rights | Algeria | As in the past, such random lethal terrorist attacks occurred throughout the year. (references) |
Equatorial Guinea | Foreigners from neighboring countries sometimes are targeted for arbitrary mistreatment and random arrest. (references) | |
Sri Lanka | Some human rights observers believe that the work of the committee deterred random arrests and alleviated problems encountered by detainees and their families. (references) | |
Minorities | Bhutan | Random checks and surveys of camp residents--including both pre-and post-June 1993 arrivals--bear this out. (references) |
Russia | Attacks generally appeared to be random, and were carried out by private individuals or small groups, inspired by racial hatred. (references) | |
Palau | Foreign residents are subject to some forms of discrimination and are targets of petty, and sometimes violent, crimes, as well as other random acts against person and property. (references) | |
Trade | Philippines | The BPI also conducts random checks on shipments. (references) |
Philippines | Cleared goods may be subject to random post-entry inspections, but only at the importer's premises. (references) | |
Vietnam | Imported pharmaceuticals, for example, must go through random lab tests on sample batches performed by Vietnamese officials. (references) | |
Travel | Sri Lanka | Tourists or business representatives traveling in Sri Lanka who are in the wrong place at the wrong time may be inadvertently caught up in random acts of violence. (references) |
Thailand | Laptop Computers: The Thai Customs Department considers laptop computers as reasonable personal effects and not dutiable, restricted or prohibited goods . If travelers carry laptop computers for use while visiting Thailand, they should check the "Nothing to Declare" box on the customs declaration form and submit the form at the Green channel . However, each traveler should carry only one laptop at a time and should be prepared to prove at a Customs random inspection that the computer is a personal belonging or for use while doing business in Thailand, and not for re-sale. (references) | |
Women | Suriname | Police allow many "brothel-type" establishments to operate, and officials assert that they make random checks on the brothels twice a month to see if women are being abused or held against their will. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Random" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 95.80% of the time. "Random" is used about 1,762 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 95.8% | 1,688 | 4,962 |
| Noun (proper) | 4.02% | 71 | 39,674 |
| Noun (singular) | 0.17% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,762 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "random": a Portrait of J. Random Hacker ♦ at random ♦ burst Static Random Access Memory ♦ centered random variable ♦ centred random variable ♦ connection random access memory ♦ double Data Rate Random Access Memory ♦ double Data Rate Synchronous Random Access Memory ♦ dynamic random access memory ♦ enhanced Dynamic Random Access Memory ♦ extended Data Out Dynamic Random Access Memory ♦ extended Data Out Random Access Memory ♦ fast Page Mode Dynamic Random Access Memory ♦ ferroelectric Random Access Memory ♦ flat random noise ♦ J. Random ♦ J. Random Hacker ♦ on a random basis ♦ page Mode Dynamic Random Access Memory ♦ parallel random access machine ♦ random access ♦ random access memory ♦ random access storage ♦ random access store ♦ Random Allocation ♦ random amplified polymorphic DNA ♦ Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique ♦ random bullet ♦ random chimeragenesis on a transient template ♦ random choice ♦ random courses ♦ random errors ♦ random figures ♦ Random Lake ♦ random memory ♦ random minelaying ♦ random noise ♦ random number ♦ random number generator ♦ random Number God ♦ random numbers ♦ random pulse ♦ random sample ♦ random sample survey ♦ random sampling ♦ random sampling numbers ♦ random selection ♦ random shot ♦ random tessellation ♦ random testing ♦ random variable ♦ random walk ♦ random walk theory ♦ random work ♦ shared random access memory ♦ single Data Rate Random Access Memory ♦ single Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory ♦ single Image Random Dot Stereogram ♦ some random X ♦ static random access memory ♦ synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory ♦ synchronous Graphics Random Access Memory ♦ talk at random ♦ talk at random about ♦ video random access memory ♦ window Random Access Memory. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "random": random-access, random-access memory, random-donor, random-dot, random-numbers, random-or, random-sample, random-stitch, random-walk. | |
Ending with "random": non-random, part-random, pseudo-random, quasi-random, repeatable-random, rs-random. | |
Containing "random": pseudo-random noise, pseudo-random number. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
random house | 572 | random web site | 41 |
random fact | 377 | random lake wisconsin | 38 |
random | 320 | random house publisher | 33 |
random number generator | 289 | random words | 33 |
random quote | 140 | deep random thought | 32 |
random drug testing | 100 | generator random word | 32 |
erotica random | 97 | generator random | 32 |
random thought | 91 | random joke | 30 |
random name generator | 89 | random image | 29 |
random act of kindness | 81 | random stuff | 29 |
random numbers | 79 | random house book | 27 |
random access memory | 76 | away message random | 27 |
random picture | 70 | number random table | 25 |
random question | 64 | random sampling | 25 |
random house publishing | 56 | random walk | 25 |
random number | 52 | random house dictionary | 25 |
random technology | 51 | random site | 23 |
length random | 50 | quiz random | 23 |
random password generator | 49 | passage random | 22 |
random drug test | 45 | random trivia | 22 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "random"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i zgjedhur me shans, i rastit (adventitious, casual, chance, coincidental, contingent, fortuitous, haphazard, incident, incidental, makeshift, occasional, odd, passing, scratch, stray, transient), i rastësishëm (accidental, casual, chanceful, coincidental, desultory, fortuitous, incident, incidental, lucky, odd, sporadic). (various references) | |
Arabic | عينة عشوائية (random sample), طائش (bad, careless, flighty, foolhardy, frivolous, giddy, harebrained, hasty, heedless, impetuous, imprudent, inadvertent, inconsiderate, indiscreet, injudicious, libertine, light, light minded, light-headed, lunatic, mad, madcap, muddle-headed, popinjay, rash, rattle-brained, reckless, scatter-brain, scatter-brained, scatty, stray, stunned, thoughtless, unadvised, unwise), جزافي, بالصدفة (accidentally, casual, fortuitously, haply, indiscriminate, passing). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | случаен (accidental, adventitious, adventive, arbitrary, by, casual, chance, facultative, fortuitous, haphazard, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, idle, incidental, long, lucky, occasional, odd, pickup, precarious, promiscuous, sporadic, stray, unplanned, unsystematic), произволен (excursive, fanciful, unwarranted, wanton, wildcat). (various references) | |
Chinese | 任意 (arbitrarily, at will). (various references) | |
Czech | namátkový (haphazard), náhodný (accidental, adventitious, arbitrary, casual, coincidental, contingent, fortuitous, haphazard, hit or miss, incidental, passing, stray), náhoda (accident, chance, coincidence, contingent, fortuity, fortune, hap, hazard), libovolný (arbitrary). (various references) | |
Danish | tilfældig (accidental, adventitious, chance). (various references) | |
Dutch | toevallig (accidental, adventitious, by accident, by chance, chance, occasional), incidenteel (accidental, adventitious, chance, incidental). (various references) | |
Esperanto | hazarda (accidental, chance). (various references) | |
Farsi | فکرتصادفی , مسیرناگهانی , گدای سمج وبی ادب , غیرعمدی (Inadvertent, Involuntary, Unintentional, Unwitting), تصادفی (Accident, Chanceful, Chancy, Chromatic, Extraneous), سرکش (Disobedient, Indomitable, Inelastic, Insubordinate, Irrepressible, Malcontent, Malignant, Naughty, Rebel, Rebellious, Recalcitrant, Refractory, Restive, Rowdy, Turbulent, Undaunted, Unruly, Unyielding, Wanton), زبان دراز (Abusive), خطسیراتقافی , خشن (Blatant, Blowsy, Blowzy, Boorish, Brutish, Churlish, Coarse, Crusty, Gruff, Harsh, High, Hoarse, Impolite, Indelicate, Knockkneed, Plebeian, Ragged, Rough, Rowdy, Rude, Scraggy, Truculent, Ungracious, Unkempt, Unmannered, Unmennerly, Wooden), افسارگیسخته , شهوانی (Brutal, Carnal, Lascivious, Lecherous, Lustful, Passionate, Ruttish, Salacious, Sensual, Voluptuous), بی تربیت (Barbarous, Gross, Impolite, Uncivil, Underbred). (various references) | |
Finnish | umpimähkäinen (haphazard, made at random, rough), satunnais-, satunnainen (accidental, casual, chance, fortuitous, temporary). (various references) | |
French | au hasard (at random). (various references) | |
German | zufällig (accidental, accidentally, adventitious, by any chance, by chance, by hazard, casual, casually, chance, coincidental, coincidentally, fortuitous, fortuitously, haphazard, incidental, incidentally, on occasion, perchance, perchancely, stochastic). (various references) | |
Greek | τύχη (betide, chance, destiny, fortuity, fortune, fortunes, hap, luck, stroke of luck), τυχαιότητα, τυχαίοσ (accidental, adventitious, casual, chance, circumstantial, coincidental, contingent, fortuitous, haphazard, incidental, occasional, scratch, stray), τυχαίος (accidental, adventitious, haphazard), τυχαίο (casualness). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מקרי (accidental, casual, chance, contingent, fortuitous, haphazard, incidental, occasional, stray). (various references) | |
Hungarian | rendszertelen (casual, desultory, inordinate, irregular, unsystematic), vaktában tett, vaktában történő, vaktában mondott, véletlen (accidental, adventitious, casual, chance, coincidence, contingent, fortuitous, fortune, hap, haphazard, happenstance, hazard, incidental, luck, occasional, promiscuous, unwitting), találomra tett (hit or miss), találomra történő, találomra (at a guess, at a venture, at haphazard, at large, at random, by guess, by haphazard, hit or miss, to take a pot-shot at), módszertelen. (various references) | |
Icelandic | tilviljunarkenndur (accidental, adventitious, chance). (various references) | |
Indonesian | sembarang (bungling, nay old), acak (disordered). (various references) | |
Italian | casuale (accidental, casual, chance, coincidental, factitive, fortuitous, haphazard, incidental, odd, passing, stray), caso (accidence, accident, affair, alternative, case, chance, connection, connexion, event, haphazard, hazard, incident, instance, matter, occasion, occurrence, possibility). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | ランゲルハンス島 (athletic-style shirt, bag, inside-the-park home run, isle of Langerhans, knapsack, lance, Lancel, lancer, land, landing, landing bahn, landmark, LANDSAT, landscape, lantern, lanthanum, Lanvin, launch, launcher, laundry, lingerie, lunch, lunch set, luncheon, lunchtime, lunchtime concert, meeting, pensioneer, random sampling, rumble seat, runner, runner's high, running, running cost, running home run, running homer, running stock, running vest, run-through, runtime, satchel with back straps, tank top), 漫然たる (desultory, rambling), 出鱈目 (haphazard, irresponsible utterance, nonsense, nonsensical, unsystematic), 好い加減 (halfhearted, irresponsible, moderate, not thorough, right, vague), いい加減 (halfhearted, irresponsible, moderate, not thorough, right, vague), 不特定 (indefinite, unspecified). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ランダム , まんぜんたる (desultory, rambling), ふとくてい (indefinite, unspecified), でたらめ (haphazard, irresponsible utterance, nonsense, nonsensical, unsystematic), いいかげん (halfhearted, irresponsible, moderate, not thorough, right, vague). (various references) | |
Korean | 무작위. (various references) | |
Manx | gyn tort (heedless, incircumspection, rashly). (various references) | |
Papiamen | aksidental (accidental, adventitious, chance). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | andomray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | fortuito (casual, chance, fortuitous, haphazard, incidental), casual (blind, bye, casual, chance, fluky, fortuitous, haphazard, incidental, occasional, odd, sporadic, undesigned), aleatório (aleatory). (various references) | |
Romanian | accidental (accidental, accidentally, adventitious, arbitrary, broken, casual, casually, chance, contingent, fortuitous, fortuitously, hurt, incidental, occasional, precarious, stray), întâmplãtor (accidental, accidentally, adventitious, casual, chance, circumstantial, contingent, facultative, fortuitous, haphazard, incidentally, occasional, occurrent, odd, transient). (various references) | |
Russian | произвольный (arbitrary, voluntary). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | slučajan (accidental, adventitious, chance, coincidental, contingent, fortuitous, haphazard, incidental, unexpected, unintentional), nasumice (adrift, blindfold, pell mell, random: at random, venture: at a venture). (various references) | |
Spanish | aleatorio (accidental, aleatory, chance). (various references) | |
Swedish | slumpmässig (chance, desultory, haphazard, helter-skelter). (various references) | |
Thai | โดยการสุ่ม, ซึ่งไม่มีแบบแผน. (various references) | |
Turkish | rasgele (aimlessly, at a venture, at haphazard, at random, by chance, desultory, freehand, haphazard, haphazardly, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, indiscriminate, offhand, promiscuous, scratch, stray, wild), tesadüfi (accidental, adventitious, chance, circumstantial, coincidental, fortuitous, incidental, passing, unarranged), gelişigüzel (at haphazard, at random, by chance, by fits and starts, casual, cursory, desultory, excursive, go-as-you-please, haphazard, helter-skelter, hit or miss, hit-and-miss, indiscriminate, promiscuous, scratch, scratchy). (various references) | |
Turkmen | oяlamazdan (at random). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | квапливість (haste, hastiness, hurry, precipitation), випадковий (accidental, adventitious, aleatory, casual, chance, chanceful, circumstantial, coincidental, contingent, episodic, episodical, eventual, extemporary, facultative, fortuitous, haphazard, happy go lucky, hit or miss, incident, occasional, occurrent, odd, pickup, promiscuous, stray, unpremeditated), непродуманий (unadvised, unreasoned), поспіх (huddle, hurry, press). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | bậy bạ (nonsensical, rubbishy, wanton), bắn bừa bãi, bừa bâi, bừa, ẩu (loose, rough-and-tumble, undiscriminating), $to speak at random$ nói bậy bạ, $to shoot at random$ bắn càn, $at random$ càn. (various references) | |
Welsh | ar antur (at random), ar amcan (at random). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Old French | 900-1400 | randon. (various references) |
| Middle English | 1100-1500 | randon. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "random": randomization, randomizations, randomize, randomized, randomizer, randomizers, randomizes, randomizing, randomly, randomness, randomnesses, randoms. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "random": nonrandom, pseudorandom. (additional references) | |
Words containing "random": nonrandomness, nonrandomnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Random" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aandoo, fandom, Frandon, Gaydom, jando, radm, Radom, radome, Radomir, radum, Ramcom, Randa, Randak, randan, rande, randem, Rando, Randomer, randomn, randoms, randon, randor, randum, Ranfon, rangoni, ranon, Rantona, Razdow, rhabdoms, rindo, Runcom, rundhof, Sandmo, tandom. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "random" (pronounced ra"ndum) |
| 5 | -a" n d u m | memorandum, tandem. |
| 4 | -n d u m | condom, corundum, referendum. |
| 3 | -d u m | addendum, boredom, modem, officialdom, chiefdom, dukedom, earldom, fiefdom, freedom, kingdom, macadam, madam, Madame, martyrdom, Sedum, seldom, sheikdom, Sodom, stardom, subkingdom, wisdom. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: rodman. | |
| Words within the letters "a-d-m-n-o-r" | |
-1 letter: adorn, manor, monad, nomad, radon, roman. | |
-2 letters: damn, darn, dona, dorm, dram, mano, moan, mora, morn, nard, noma, norm, orad, rand, road, roam, roan. | |
-3 letters: ado, and, arm, dam, dom, don, dor, mad, man, mar, moa, mod, mon, mor, nam, nod, nom, nor, oar, ora, rad, ram, ran, rod, rom. | |
-4 letters: ad, am, an. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-d-m-n-o-r" | |
+1 letter: doorman, dormant, gormand, madrona, madrone, madrono, monarda, mordant, randoms, rodsman. | |
+2 letters: boardman, boardmen, cardamon, demeanor, dormancy, dragoman, dragomen, enamored, gormands, gourmand, landform, madronas, madrones, madronos, mandator, markdown, marooned, monandry, monardas, moonward, moorland, mordancy, mordants, normande, ondogram, pomander, radioman, radiomen, randomly, ransomed, rhodamin, romanced, sandworm, swordman. | |
+3 letters: adornment, andromeda, bombardon, cardamons, commander, communard, damnatory, demeanors, demeanour, dominator, dragomans, dynamotor, ealdorman, ealdormen, enamoured, forenamed, gourmands, handsomer, landforms, mandators, mandatory, markdowns, meandrous, memoranda, monodrama, moorlands, mordanted, mordantly, nonrandom, ondograms, pomanders, promenade, randomize, rhodamine, rhodamins, romanised, romanized, roundsman, sandstorm, sandworms, swordsman, unarmored. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Sounds | 9. Quotations: Fiction 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Abbreviations | 17. Acronyms 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
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