randomly
Americanadverb
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without definite aim, reason, sense, or pattern.
This poem just seems like a bunch of words randomly put together.
Freckles generally appear randomly on the face and upper shoulders.
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Statistics. in a way that gives each item in a set the equal probability of being chosen.
A survey of 309 women aged 15 to 49 was conducted in nine randomly selected villages.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of randomly
Explanation
Anything done randomly has no plan or strategy. If you choose your college courses randomly, you may end up studying some unusual topics. Hope you enjoy Advanced History of Cheese-Making! When you pick the name of a prize winner from, you're choosing randomly. In other words, there's no specific method to making the selection; you're simply grabbing a random slip of paper. Sometimes this adverb implies chaos: "Clothes were tossed randomly around her room, while a laundry basket stood empty." This haphazard sense of both randomly and random grew from the original definition, "at great speed."
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.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of three dose groups: 45, 90 or 120 milligrams.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026
Half were randomly assigned to receive acetaminophen when medication was needed for fever or pain during the first year of life.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
The Rolling Stones have often sold randomly assigned pairs of discounted seats through a program called “Lucky Dip.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
The plaintiffs argue the winners were not selected randomly, as Musk had suggested, but chosen because they could serve as effective spokespeople for the group.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
He’s wearing a short-sleeved polo shirt, as if he’s standing in a Georgia peach grove, and I’ve just cut and pasted him randomly into winter.
From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson
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.
