random

random
    adj 1: lacking any definite plan or order or purpose; governed
           by or depending on chance; "a random choice"; "bombs fell
           at random"; "random movements" [ant: {nonrandom}]
    

Random \Ran"dom\ (r[a^]n"d[u^]m), n. [OE. randon, OF. randon
   force, violence, rapidity, [`a] randon, de randon, violently,
   suddenly, rapidly, prob. of German origin; cf. G. rand edge,
   border, OHG. rant shield, edge of a shield, akin to E. rand,
   n. See {Rand}, n.]
   1. Force; violence. [Obs.]
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            For courageously the two kings newly fought with
            great random and force.               --E. Hall.
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   2. A roving motion; course without definite direction; want
      of direction, rule, or method; hazard; chance; -- commonly
      used in the phrase at random, that is, without a settled
      point of direction; at hazard.
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            Counsels, when they fly
            At random, sometimes hit most happily. --Herrick.
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            O, many a shaft, at random sent,
            Finds mark the archer little meant!   --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
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   3. Distance to which a missile is cast; range; reach; as, the
      random of a rifle ball. --Sir K. Digby.
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   4. (Mining) The direction of a rake-vein. --Raymond.
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Random \Ran"dom\, a.
   1. Going at random or by chance; done or made at hazard, or
      without settled direction, aim, or purpose; hazarded
      without previous calculation; left to chance; haphazard;
      as, a random guess.
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            Some random truths he can impart.     --Wordsworth.
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            So sharp a spur to the lazy, and so strong a bridle
            to the random.                        --H. Spencer.
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   2. (Statistics) Of, pertaining to, or resulting from a
      process of selection from a starting set of items, in
      which the probability of selecting any one object in the
      starting set is equal to the probability of selecting any
      other.
      [PJC]

   3. (Construction) of unequal size or shape; made from
      components of unequal size or shape.
      [PJC]

   {at random} in a manner so that all possible results have an
      equal probability of occurrence; for processes, each
      possible result is counted separately although the same
      type of result may occur more than once .

   {Random courses} (Masonry), courses of stone of unequal
      thickness.

   {Random shot}, a shot not directed or aimed toward any
      particular object, or a shot with the muzzle of the gun
      much elevated.

   {Random work} (Masonry), stonework consisting of stones of
      unequal sizes fitted together, but not in courses nor
      always with flat beds.
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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."
    

random

   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 organised.
   "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.  A random hacker; used particularly of high-school students
   who soak up computer time and generally get in the way.

   9.  Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone not
   known to the hacker speaking).  "I went to the talk, but the
   audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions".

   10.  (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall.  See
   also {J. Random}, {some random X}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1995-12-05)
    

138 Moby Thesaurus words for "random":
      accidental, adventitious, adventitiously, aimless, aleatoric,
      aleatory, amorphous, any which way, anyhow, anywise, arbitrarily,
      arbitrary, around, at random, blobby, blurred, blurry, broad,
      by chance, capricious, casual, casually, causeless, chance,
      chance-medley, chancy, chaotic, confused, designless, desultory,
      disarticulated, discontinuous, disjunct, disordered, dispersed,
      disproportionate, driftless, dysteleological, erratic, erratically,
      fitful, foggy, formless, fortuitous, fortuitously, frivolous,
      fuzzy, general, gratuitous, haphazard, haphazardly, hazy,
      helter-skelter, hit-or-miss, ill-defined, immethodical, imprecise,
      inaccurate, inchoate, incidental, incidentally, incoherent,
      indecisive, indefinable, indefinite, indefinitely, indeterminable,
      indeterminate, indiscriminate, indiscriminately, indistinct,
      inexact, inexplicable, irregular, irregularly, lax, loose,
      meaningless, mindless, misshapen, nonspecific, nonsymmetrical,
      nonsystematic, nonuniform, obscure, occasional, occasionally, odd,
      orderless, planless, potluck, promiscuous, purposeless,
      random shot, randomly, senseless, serendipitous, serendipitously,
      shadowed forth, shadowy, shapeless, spasmodic, sporadic,
      stochastic, straggling, straggly, stray, sweeping, systemless,
      unaccountable, unarranged, uncalculated, unclassified, unclear,
      undefined, undestined, undetermined, undirected, ungraded,
      unjoined, unmethodical, unmotivated, unordered, unorganized,
      unplain, unplanned, unpremeditated, unpremeditatedly, unsorted,
      unspecific, unspecified, unsymmetrical, unsystematic,
      unsystematically, ununiform, vague, veiled, wandering