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What is "random"

Crossword clues for random

random
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
random
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a random check (=done without any definite pattern)
▪ Customs officials were carrying out random checks on cars.
a random error (=one that is not like others or part of a pattern)
▪ This may seem like a random error, but in fact it is repeated once in every 5,000 samples.
random access memory
random selection (=choosing without any reason or order)
▪ the random selection of genes
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
apparently
▪ Where such chains exist, an apparently random journey through a network becomes a fairly predictable matter.
▪ There are movements of Rabari, swirls and swoops apparently random but fractal in nature.
▪ However, computer scientists have developed programs which produce numbers that are apparently random.
▪ It is found as an apparently random image, often in incongruous, surrealist-like juxtapositions.
▪ The great inquisitor began with an hour of apparently random questions.
▪ Contemporary chaos theory talks about so-called strange attractors, which are the ordering principles within such apparently random patterns.
▪ The passages did not go straight, but turned at right angles and ran into one another in an apparently random fashion.
▪ Dotted overhead, quite motionless and forming apparently random patterns, were myriads of tiny black specks.
completely
▪ This helps to balance the overall picture, rather than create four completely random designs.
■ NOUN
access
▪ Playing time is longer about one hour of straight playing time per side - but random access is less accurate.
▪ In fact, it had no random access memory at all.
▪ Myth-1: All disk drive requests are random access.
▪ It comes with eight megabytes of random access memory, a must since it also comes with Windows 95.
▪ In order to do this with the minimum access time, random access files are necessary.
▪ The difficultly of achieving high-speed random access can be reduced by careful design of the data layout.
▪ Please specify Y if this media unit is a serial device or N if it is a random access device.
▪ The combination with videodisc players is particularly interesting because of the ways random access can be exploited.
allocation
▪ The t treatments are applied within each block by random allocation to the experimental units.
check
▪ More random checks are to be held over the next few weeks.
▪ Afterwards he was tested positive in a random check.
▪ A number of local law societies felt that random checks would be more productive in revealing problems.
drug
▪ Under the governing body's initiative, some karate competitions now include a random drug test.
▪ Later the same year, a pair of runners refused to submit to random drug tests.
▪ The International Squash Rackets Federation will introduce random drug testing at next year's world championships.
▪ The penalty agreed to on the cocaine charge includes four years of supervised probation and random drug testing.
▪ It thinks universal or random drug testing of employees is an unwarranted invasion of privacy.
▪ They instituted random drug testing; they searched flight bags.
▪ The Court of Appeals had just upheld random drug testing for high school cheerleaders in Indiana.
error
▪ This section then describes some validation parameters including accuracy and precision, random errors, calibration curves and noise.
▪ This involved initial tests of short and longer term random error and spiking recovery.
event
▪ Injuries due to accidents are not random events.
▪ Dunn said the toys have a lot of random events that keep things interesting.
▪ The reply has been that this converts effects into what they are not: chance or random events, and inexplicable events.
▪ So far we have treated impacts as single, random events.
▪ The random event is frightening to all of us because we are defenseless.
▪ Most random events, of course, would be over the oceans, and would almost certainly not be seen.
fluctuations
▪ Apart from random fluctuations, the deleterious effect of too short and too long spacing is seen for each order birth.
group
▪ This was less likely in infants in the random group, half of whom underwent cord clamping within 10 seconds of delivery.
▪ Median and minimum arterial-alveolar oxygen tension ratios for ventilated infants on the first day were significantly lower in the random group.
▪ Three infants in the random group developed chronic lung disease.
▪ One infant in the random group later died unexpectedly at home.
▪ In the random group management was at the attendant's discretion.
▪ Seventeen infants were enrolled in the regulated group and 19 in the random group.
▪ Only one infant in the random group was held below the introitus.
▪ Or were the knives sent to a random group of people to confuse the hunt for either the killer or the hoaxer?
motion
▪ His hands were moving too - constantly, with that same undersea random motion.
▪ The gases inside the capsule will be exerting a pressure due to their random motion.
▪ The pressure of the gas is also due to the random motion of molecules.
▪ There is a subtle difference between the random motion of molecules and their coherent motion.
▪ In the atmosphere, the pressure is due to random motion, but wind is due to a degree of coherent motion.
▪ The particles are in continuous random motion. 3.
mutation
▪ When they seemed to resemble each other rather too closely, he introduced random mutations in the offspring.
▪ The genes that cause the elaborate ornament or long tail to appear are subject to random mutation.
▪ Our random mutation is essential because it is unnecessary.
▪ The more elaborate the ornament, the more likely that a random mutation will make the ornament less elaborate, not more.
▪ We want them to emerge solely as a result of cumulative selection of random mutations.
▪ It follows that some process other than random mutation and selection must be involved.
number
▪ By using tables of random numbers the children were allocated to three groups: adenotonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, and no surgery.
▪ Littlewoods has reworked its pools coupons to accommodate customers who simply want to pick random numbers.
▪ The human expertise in computer-derived works could be found to reside in the programs which produced the lists of random numbers.
▪ That is, a new key is generated as a random number for each message.
▪ Both the microbiologist and the pathologist were blinded to the treatment by coding the samples with random numbers.
▪ They were divided by random numbers into two groups, one receiving oxygen during gastroscopy and the other receiving air.
▪ The trainer would then shout out a random number, for example, six.
▪ Thus we pick a random number in the range 1 to 586÷2 293.
numbers
▪ By using tables of random numbers the children were allocated to three groups: adenotonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, and no surgery.
▪ Littlewoods has reworked its pools coupons to accommodate customers who simply want to pick random numbers.
▪ The human expertise in computer-derived works could be found to reside in the programs which produced the lists of random numbers.
▪ Both the microbiologist and the pathologist were blinded to the treatment by coding the samples with random numbers.
▪ They were divided by random numbers into two groups, one receiving oxygen during gastroscopy and the other receiving air.
▪ Each vertex in the coverage was perturbed by selecting random numbers from a uniform distribution, with ranges defined in Table 6.2.
▪ If we choose names out of a hat, or by using random numbers, then we are doing truly random sampling.
▪ The squares were chosen with a table of random numbers.
order
▪ Records are often processed in a random order.
▪ They were presented in random order, and the respondents were asked to judge the acceptability of the sentences.
▪ Investigators and subjects were blinded to insulin type and the insulins were given in random order.
▪ A number of sentences that describe a sequence of events are presented on the screen in random order.
pattern
▪ Make a random pattern of, say, square dots on a transparent sheet of paper, and make an identical copy.
▪ Contemporary chaos theory talks about so-called strange attractors, which are the ordering principles within such apparently random patterns.
▪ So the seemingly random patterns of the yarrow stalks provide a bridge between your question and the relevant hexagram.
▪ Dotted overhead, quite motionless and forming apparently random patterns, were myriads of tiny black specks.
▪ Daunting, too, is the random pattern of attacks, both in location and time.
sample
▪ Against this must be set a non-response about twice that for a random sample involving house calls.
▪ The results are not a random sample of the vehicles on the road at all.
▪ For instance, suppose we want to take a random sample of ten students from a class of 50.
▪ Thus all members of a simple random sample of 30 pupils from a mixed school could be girls.
▪ The research involves collecting data from two random samples.
▪ Altogether, 60 speakers were recorded, taken from a random sample of 120 households.
sampling
▪ The figures are breathtaking, too, as a random sampling will illustrate.
▪ If the latter were true, random sampling of the normal mucosa would be less reliable as a means of ascertaining risk.
▪ Describe and comment on the technique of random sampling.
▪ In addition he suggests a random sampling of enquiries for further in-depth analysis.
▪ If we choose names out of a hat, or by using random numbers, then we are doing truly random sampling.
selection
▪ The random selection of units was vital.
▪ Meanwhile, the cyber gods controlling the random selection virtually ignored some large districts in other areas of the state.
▪ Test data was gathered by random selection from each domain until the target of approximately 17 sentences per domain had been met.
▪ Pete Wilson and the state Lottery, which has some expertise in random selection.
▪ It also ruled out random selection or co-option of experts.
▪ Percentage measures of performance should therefore be compared to that expected from random selection.
▪ For a random selection of 20 crops, the score was 5.
▪ Instead an intelligence officer had ploughed through Mills' personal effects and leafed through a random selection of files.
sequence
▪ How can a series of fixed instructions cause the computer to come up with a random sequence of results?
▪ If n is negative the pseudo random sequence generator is set to a number based on n and n is returned.
▪ There were 160 trials in random sequence.
▪ Even proteins formed as a random sequence of amino acids have some slight catalytic activity.
variable
▪ We shall assume that this deviation is a random variable,, with mean of zero and constant variance,.
variation
▪ One doctor raised the issue of random variations in service needs addressed in a paper by Crump etal.
▪ So much for single-step selection of random variation.
▪ However, many of them show random variations in brightness lasting only a few months or, on occasion, days.
▪ Usually there will be some random variation of this sort superposed on a relatively constant overall pattern.
violence
▪ But is it inequality that leaves women subject to random violence?
▪ We have enough random violence to keep us busy well past the End Days.
▪ Soccer fans were its contribution to the global tradition of random violence.
▪ Even those of high station in so-called safe neighborhoods can not escape the tragedy of random violence.
▪ The two major criticisms aimed at Farc are that it recruits children and that it carries out acts of random violence.
▪ Apparently random violence in certain streets enlivened the working day - but sometimes left physical scars.
walk
▪ The prices of securities follow a random walk.
▪ Finally, there are great fund managers for whom the random walk may not be so random.
▪ Share prices follow a random walk without any underlying trend. 5.
▪ Each protozoon makes a biassed random walk about the screen.
▪ To keep shifting the target all the time makes life impossible and a sort of random walk develops.
▪ The random walk in one dimension is discussed in textbooks of thermo-dynamics, as is the three-dimensional random walk.
▪ It would be totally random, so it could be called a random walk.
way
▪ It had all just happened in the random way things do.
▪ A hardware error on the other hand happens in a more or less random way.
▪ I would not calculate this time, this time I would try to select my route in a random way.
▪ Such specifics appeared to receive attention in a fairly random way, and there were notable omissions from the specifics attended to.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Random dashes of color highlight the painting.
▪ random drug tests
▪ A few random shots were fired, but the battle was over.
▪ The union believes that the random drug testing of employees is an invasion of their privacy.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At random, I opened an earlier page.
▪ Because at random was exactly how humans were trying to restore ecosystems.
▪ Contemporary chaos theory talks about so-called strange attractors, which are the ordering principles within such apparently random patterns.
▪ I have also decided to do some random attacks as a means of confusing law enforcement.
▪ It was the random collisions melding the rocky substances, plus turbulent accretions, that were to make up the inner planets.
▪ Median and minimum arterial-alveolar oxygen tension ratios for ventilated infants on the first day were significantly lower in the random group.
▪ To keep shifting the target all the time makes life impossible and a sort of random walk develops.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Random

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.

    Some random truths he can impart.
    --Wordsworth.

    So sharp a spur to the lazy, and so strong a bridle to the random.
    --H. Spencer.

  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.

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

    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.

Random

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.]

    For courageously the two kings newly fought with great random and force.
    --E. Hall.

  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.

    Counsels, when they fly At random, sometimes hit most happily.
    --Herrick.

    O, many a shaft, at random sent, Finds mark the archer little meant!
    --Sir W. Scott.

  3. Distance to which a missile is cast; range; reach; as, the random of a rifle ball.
    --Sir K. Digby.

  4. (Mining) The direction of a rake-vein.
    --Raymond.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
random

"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 (cognates: Old High German rennen "to run," Old English rinnan "to flow, to run;" see run (v.)).\n

\nIn 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.

Wiktionary
random

a. 1 Having unpredictable outcomes and, in the ideal case, all outcomes equally probable; resulting from such selection; lacking statistical correlation. 2 (context mathematics English) Of or relating to probability distribution. 3 (context computing English) pseudorandom; mimicking the result of random selection. 4 (context somewhat colloquial English) representative and undistinguished; typical and average; selected for no particular reason. 5 (context somewhat colloquial English) apropos of nothing; lacking context; unexpected; having apparent lack of plan, cause(,) or reason. 6 (context colloquial English) Characterized by or often saying ''random'' things; habitually using non sequiturs. n. 1 A roving motion; course without definite direction; lack of rule or method; chance. 2 (label en obsolete) speed, full speed; impetuosity, force. (14th-17thc.)

Related phrases:
WordNet
random

  1. adj. 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]

  2. taken haphazardly; "a random choice"

Related phrases:
Gazetteer
Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Random (band)

Random were a five-member Australian R&B vocal group formed in 2005 by Xylocaine "Xy" Latu, Donald Tauvao, his cousins Tasesa Junior "TJ" Tauvao and Wayne Tauvao; and Andy-Iese "Jesse" Tolo-Paepae. They won the first season of The X Factor (Australia). In October that year they issued their debut self-titled album, which peaked in the ARIA Albums Chart top 100. Their first single, "Put Your Hands Up", peaked at No. 7 on the related ARIA Singles Chart. A follow up single, "Are You Ready", reached No. 36. The group disbanded in 2007 but briefly reunited in October 2009 for a one-off performance.

Random (disambiguation)

Random or randomness, is the property of lacking any sensible predictability.

Random may also refer to:

Random (comics)

Random (Marshall Evan Stone III) is a fictional character and antihero created by writer Peter David for the Marvel Comics series X-Factor. He started out as a thorn in the side of X-Factor, but he later became a reluctant ally of theirs. The mystery of his life has yet to be completely revealed.

Random (02)

Random (02) is a remix album by Gary Numan, released in 1998 on Beggars Banquet records as a companion album to the Random covers album of the preceding year. It contains new remixes in techno and house music styles by several club DJ's and mixers and was also released as a four LP set. These four vinyl LPs were again released separately as limited edition 12" singles on red (Random 2.1), green (Random 2.2), blue (Random 2.3) and clear (Random 2.4) vinyl.

The artwork is notable for being printed on rice paper.

Random (application)

Random is an iOS application that uses algorithms and human-curation to create an adaptive interface to the Internet. The app serves a remix of relevance and serendipity that allows people to find diverse topics and interesting content that they might not encounter otherwise.

Random doesn't require a login or sign-up - the use of the app is anonymous. The app is powered by an artificial intelligence that learns from direct and indirect user interactions inside the app. While learning and adapting to a person Random creates a unique anonymous choice profile that is then used for recommending topics and content. The app doesn't recommend the same content twice.

Random (Lady Sovereign song)

"Random" is the first CD single from UK hip hop artist Lady Sovereign, following the release of her 12" vinyl single " Ch Ching (Cheque 1 2)" in 2004. It was her second and last single for Casual Records in 2005.

The single was Lady Sovereign's first to make the UK top 75, peaking at #73 there and spending one week within the top 75. After the single release, she was signed by Def Jam Recordings and this single is considered to be her breakthrough into the mainstream market.

"Random" was featured on an episode of The O.C. aired on April 27, 2006, playing in the background during the senior prom in Season 3, Episode 23 - " The Party Favor" and was featured as a track on Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix. A remix of this song was played on the "Jamalot" episode of CSI: NY.

The first rapped line in the song references the hit song " Tipsy" by J-Kwon.

Random (G-Eazy song)

"Random" is a song by American rapper G-Eazy. It was released on October 29, 2015 as an instant-grat off his second studio album When It's Dark Out. The song was produced by Ozan "OZ" Yildirim.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "random".

Duff, a New Zealand anthropologist who has made a special study of adze distributions, claiming that no adzes with butts tanged as an aid in lashing the handles have been established for Western Polynesia, whereas tanged adzes have been found throughout Eastern Polynesia, has argued that this is not in accord with what one would expect from random voyaging.

Obviously, therefore, there must have been some explanation for the absence of tanged adzes from Western Polynesia other than that random voyages did not occur.

DNA chips, runs DNA isolated from the borehole samples through polymerase chain reactions to make thousands of random copies, and passes aliquots across the chips.

Pierre held out one at random and drank with enjoyment, gazing with ever-increasing amiability at the other guests.

Illvin hesitated, and Ista wondered if he thought of all the random breakage Porifors had suffered in the day past, and if this makeshift bridge was likewise vilely ensorcelled.

I pressed myself flat back against the tree, heart chokingly huge in my throat, petrified for fear the blades would strike at any random movement in the shadows.

When he released her, Cilia turned quickly and chose a record at random.

Whether he was analyzing the latest digital microchips or the clunky circuits found in old televisions, he found that all the components were just a few electrical steps from one another, yet they were much more clustered than they would have been in an equivalent random circuit, thanks to the modular design favored by engineering practice.

Remembering what Farder Coram had said, she tried to focus her mind on three symbols taken at random, and clicked the hands round to point at them, and found that if she held the alethiometer just so in her palms and gazed at it in a particular lazy way, as she thought of it, the long needle would begin to move more purposefully.

When the coranto ended, they all bowed and kissed one another, formal as china figurines, random and sensual as bending grass.

Such crimes often receive widespread publicity, and they create a great deal of fear because of their apparent random and motiveless nature.

People fear these crimes precisely because of the seemingly random nature of the murders.

Delta onto the frozen peak of the world, to free the Dancer and ask her a question that might end his search, and then, with Tiel safe, to close his eyes and hope that the heart of the Cygnet and the heart of Ro Holding had no more to do with one another than a random pattern of stars had to do with a smallfolk rhyme.

If you stare at one spot long enough, the random texture gets interpreted into some coherent image, or the suggestion of one, like an inkblot or those decalcomania and frottage pieces Max Ernst dabbled with.

The human shape that had begun to disaggregate from it became random again.