The AI-powered English dictionary
comparative more arbitrary, superlative most arbitrary
(usually of a decision) Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random. examples
Determined by impulse rather than reason; heavy-handed. quotations examples
The Russian trials were Stalin's purges, with which he attempted to consolidate his power. Like most people in the West, I believed these show trials to be the arbitrary acts of a cruel dictator.
1937/1938, Albert Einstein, letter to Max Born
The bromide conforms to everything sanctioned by the majority, and may be depended upon to be trite, banal, and arbitrary.
1906, Gelett Burgess, Are You a Bromide?
(mathematics) Any, out of all that are possible. examples
Determined by independent arbiter. examples
(linguistics) Not representative or symbolic; not iconic. examples
plural arbitraries
Anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee. quotations examples
And in this long chain of consistence, a chain stretching from the long dead to the far unborn, the notion of the arbitrary could only survive as the notion of a pre-established arbitrary.
1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, Olympia Press