arbitrariness
Americannoun
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the quality of being subject to an individual’s will, judgment, discretion, or personal preference.
Of course none of this makes sense; it just shows the arbitrariness and subjectivity of what's considered obscene.
Students need to recognize that there is a certain arbitrariness in any ranking, and be less concerned about whether a school has moved up or down slightly in any given year.
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the quality of having no apparent reason or pattern; randomness.
These inconsistencies show the arbitrariness, incongruity, and unreliability of what gets remembered.
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the state or quality of being uncontrolled or unrestricted by law; tyranny.
When red tape serves only the organization itself, the rule of law can easily turn into arbitrariness.
The real burden on the peasants was the arbitrariness of the autocratic form of government.
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Linguistics, Semiotics. (of words or language) the quality of having no correspondence between the sounds or form of a word and the form, function, or meaning of the thing being denoted.
The arbitrariness of words is absolute because words are abstractions.
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Mathematics. the quality of being undetermined, or not having been assigned a specific value.
The arbitrariness of ε concludes the proof for that case.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of arbitrariness
Explanation
If you get detention Monday for not eating peaches, Tuesday for not wearing a top hat, and Wednesday for not walking backward, you might complain about the arbitrariness of the rules, which are random, unpredictable, and without reason. We often associate arbitrariness with dictators who make up laws and dish out punishments based on their moods or their desperate attempts to stay in power. At the same time, parents demonstrate a kind of arbitrariness when they answer the question "why not?" with "Because I said so!" To avoid arbitrariness, people make decisions based on consistency, reason, order, and predictability.
Vocabulary lists containing arbitrariness
Just Mercy
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Vocabulary from Readings 1, Unit 1
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A Bend in the River
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For others, dog meat has served as a provocative thought exercise about the arbitrariness of the moral value humans assign to animals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2024
She particularly focuses on what she calls the "arbitrariness" and the damage it has caused.
From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2023
“There is a huge amount of arbitrariness that’s built into it.”
From Slate ● Aug. 9, 2023
Yet the arbitrariness of opportunity and vocation — who gets to make art? who has to dig ditches? — is clear and pointed.
From New York Times ● May 21, 2023
Initially, one of the most puzzling features of animal domestication is the seeming arbitrariness with which some species have been domesticated while their close relatives have not.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
