arbitrary

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   based on or subject to individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice

   an arbitrary decision

2. 2
   adj

   Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.

   Benjamin Franklin's designation of "positive" and "negative" to different charges was arbitrary.

3. 3
   adj

   Determined by impulse rather than reason; often connoting heavy-handedness.

   1937/1938, Albert Einstein, letter to Max Born 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.

4. 4
   adj

   Any, out of all that are possible.

   The equation is true for an arbitrary value of x.

5. 5
   noun

   Anything arbitrary, such as an arithmetical value or a fee.

   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.

6. 6
   adj

   Determined by independent arbiter.

7. 7
   adj

   Not representative or symbolic; not iconic.

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin arbiter Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -ārius Latin arbitrāriusder. Middle English arbitrarie English arbitrary From Middle English arbitrarie, Latin arbitrārius (“arbitrary, uncertain”), from arbiter (“witness, on-looker, listener, judge, overseer”).