Randomness


[ran-duh m] /ˈræn dəm/

adjective
1.
proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern:
the random selection of numbers.
2.
Statistics. of or characterizing a process of selection in which each item of a set has an equal probability of being chosen.
3.
Building Trades.

4.
Slang.

noun
5.
Slang.

6.
Chiefly British. 3 (def 7b).
adverb
7.
Building Trades. without uniformity:
random-sized slates.
Idioms
8.
at random, without definite aim, purpose, method, or adherence to a prior arrangement; in a haphazard way:
Contestants were chosen at random from the studio audience.
/ˈrændəm/
adjective
1.
lacking any definite plan or prearranged order; haphazard: a random selection
2.
(statistics)

3.
(informal) (of a person) unknown: some random guy waiting for a bus
noun
4.
at random, in a purposeless fashion; not following any prearranged order
adj.

“having no definite aim or purpose,” 1650s, from at random (1560s), “at great speed” (thus, “carelessly, haphazardly”), alteration of Middle English noun randon “impetuosity, speed” (c.1300), from Old French randon “rush, disorder, force, impetuosity,” from randir “to run fast,” from Frankish *rant “a running” or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *randa (cf. Old High German rennen “to run,” Old English rinnan “to flow, to run;” see run (v.)).

In 1980s U.S. college student slang it began to acquire a sense of “inferior, undesirable.” (A 1980 William Safire column describes it as a college slang noun meaning “person who does not belong on our dormitory floor.”) Random access in reference to computer memory is recorded from 1953. Related: Randomly; randomness.
random
(rān’dəm)

1. An inexplicable misfeature; gratuitous inelegance.
2. A hack or crock that depends on a complex combination of coincidences (or, possibly, the combination upon which the crock depends for its accidental failure to malfunction). “This hack can output characters 40–57 by putting the character in the four bit accumulator field of an XCT and then extracting six bits – the low 2 bits of the XCT opcode are the right thing.” “What randomness!”
3. Of people, synonymous with “flakiness”. The connotation is that the person so described is behaving weirdly, incompetently, or inappropriately for reasons which are (a) too tiresome to bother inquiring into, (b) are probably as inscrutable as quantum phenomena anyway, and (c) are likely to pass with time. “Maybe he has a real complaint, or maybe it’s just randomness. See if he calls back.”
[Jargon File]
see: at random

Read Also:

  • Random-number

    noun, Statistics. 1. a number chosen by a random sampling, as from a table (random number table) or generated by a computer.

  • Random rubble

    noun 1. masonry in which untooled stones are set without coursing

  • Random-sampling

    noun, Statistics. 1. a method of selecting a sample (random sample) from a statistical population in such a way that every possible sample that could be selected has a predetermined probability of being selected.

  • Random selection

    noun in statistics, a random sampling or sample Examples Random selection is how you draw the sample of people for your study from a population. Word Origin by 1884

  • Random testing

    programming, testing A black-box testing approach in which software is tested by choosing an arbitrary subset of all possible input values. Random testing helps to avoid the problem of only testing what you know will work. (2001-04-30)


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