arbitrary

1. 1
   no clear ruleadjective

   Based on personal choice or judgment rather than any objective standard, and sometimes made at random.

   Like drawing names from a hat instead of judging on merit.

   The committee's decision seemed arbitrary, resting on preference rather than fixed criteria.

   Setting the cutoff at exactly seventy points was entirely arbitrary.

   Similarrandom, subjective, capricious, whimsical

   Oppositeobjective, reasoned, principled, rational

   Note

   Here the word usually describes a decision, and it need not be a criticism. Benjamin Franklin's choice of which charge to call "positive" was arbitrary because either label would have worked equally well. The same goes for fixing adulthood at 18 rather than 17 or 19. Use it of conventions and cutoffs where some line simply had to be drawn. Once it accuses someone of whim, it has moved toward the high-handed meaning. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Benjamin Franklin chose which electrical charge to label positive; the assignment was arbitrary because the labels could have been reversed. met.reading.ac.uk
   • Setting adulthood at 18 is an example of a conventional age cutoff. news.ku.edu
2. 2
   harsh poweradjective

   Driven by impulse rather than reason, often suggesting a harsh or high-handed use of power.

   The regime's arbitrary arrests created a climate of fear.

   Workers resented the supervisor's arbitrary demands, issued on a whim.

   UsageCommon in arbitrary arrest, arbitrary detention, arbitrary power.

   Similarcapricious, high-handed, unreasonable, despotic, tyrannical

   Oppositereasonable, fair, rational, lawful

   Note

   Where the word becomes an accusation: power used on a whim, for no reason the people subject to it can see. Max Born, looking back on Stalin's show trials in his commentary on his letters with Einstein, said he had taken them for "the arbitrary acts of a cruel dictator." Gelett Burgess's Are You a Bromide? (1906) turns it on a type of person, setting it beside trite and banal. Used of authority, it carries a charge of heavy-handedness that neutral uses lack. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Max Born described Stalin’s show trials as “the arbitrary acts of a cruel dictator” in commentary accompanying his correspondence with Einstein. era.ed.ac.uk
   • Gelett Burgess wrote Are You a Bromide?, first published in 1906. gutenberg.org
   • Burgess applies “arbitrary” to the Bromide personality type alongside “trite” and “banal.” gutenberg.org
3. 3
   any one (maths)adjective

   Any one whatsoever, selected from all those that are possible.

   Let x be an arbitrary integer greater than zero.

   The proof holds for an arbitrary triangle, not just right triangles.

   Oppositespecific, particular

   Note

   Mathematicians use it with no hint of carelessness. Calling x arbitrary means nothing is assumed about it beyond its kind, so whatever is proved for x holds for every value at once. That is why "for an arbitrary x" and "for all x" come to the same thing, and why "let x be arbitrary" opens so many proofs. Keep it apart from the everyday "no good reason" meaning. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • An arbitrary element has no additional assumptions imposed on it beyond membership in the relevant domain. cseweb.ucsd.edu
   • A result proved for an arbitrary element holds for every element of the relevant domain, by universal generalization. cs.utexas.edu
4. 4
   signs (language)adjective

   Bearing no natural or resemblance-based connection to what it signifies; not iconic.

   Most letters of the Latin alphabet are now arbitrary shapes, though several began as pictures of objects.

   Unlike a portrait, a written word is arbitrary, resembling nothing it names.

   Similarconventional, unmotivated

   Oppositeiconic, motivated

   Note

   Linguists use it of signs whose form has no natural link to what they mean, and its opposite is iconic. A picture of a tree resembles a tree; the word tree does not, so the word is arbitrary. Nothing pejorative is meant. The term describes how a sign works, not whether anyone chose it badly, which separates it from the everyday "no objective basis" sense. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Arbitrariness describes the absence of a natural connection between a sign's form and its meaning. newlearningonline.com
   • Iconicity, involving resemblance between form and meaning, contrasts with arbitrariness. en.wikipedia.org
   • A representational picture exemplifies a sign that resembles its referent. en.wikipedia.org
   • The English word tree does not resemble its referent and exemplifies linguistic arbitrariness. journals.plos.org

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