Random

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈɹændəm/

Definitions

1. Occurring without a specific pattern, purpose, or predictable order; happening by chance rather than design
2. Characterized by a lack of intentionality or predictable patterns, occurrences that arise by chance are considered to lack a specific design or order
3. Taking place in an unpredictable way with no set plan or system

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "random" is how physical it once was. Its ancestor, Old French "randon", meant a rush or headlong gallop, and it came from "randir", "to run or gallop". Speakers in the medieval period used it for the sheer force of a charge, a torrent, or a headlong dash, so the idea of motion came long before the idea of chance. The sense moved from speed to lack of direction. Someone running "at random" went wherever momentum carried them, without a fixed course, and that sense of heading off without aim gradually became the modern notion of something done without plan or pattern. The English form "randon" appears in Middle English, and the word took its current spelling and sense over the following centuries. Its roots reach back to a Germanic word for running, related to the English verb "run" itself, which is why the two words share a family resemblance despite their different paths into the language.

Synonyms: haphazard, arbitrary, unpredictable, chance, erratic

Antonyms: planned, systematic, methodical, ordered, deliberate