random
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Occurring for no particular reason.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
randuhmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹændəm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Occurring for no particular reason; haphazard, unpredictable.
informal
Selected for no particular reason; arbitrary; unspecified.
informal
Being (part of) a varied, unrelated, and apparently arbitrary collection of things; diverse, heterogeneous.
informal
Apropos of nothing; lacking context, relevance, or any connection to the previous situation; unexpected.
informal
Of a person: characterized by or often saying random things; habitually using non sequiturs.
ukslang
Being out of the ordinary; unusual or unexpected; odd, strange, bizarre.
noun
A roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance.
figurativelycolloquial
An undefined, unknown or unimportant person; a person of no consequence.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Occurring for no particular reason; haphazard, unpredictable.
Used this way, random is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use random
- “We made a random choice from the menu and were pleasantly surprised.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A thermodynamic quantity representing the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical work.
In a random manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The selection of a random sample.
A variable quantity that is random.
A stochastic process consisting of a sequence of changes each of whose characteristics (as magnitude or direction) is determined by chance.
The most common computer memory which can be used by programs to perform necessary tasks while the computer is on.
The most common computer memory which can be used by programs to perform necessary tasks while the computer is on.
A routine designed to yield a random number.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.