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.
Citing Anthropic, the police department said the AI agent had been running a test that involved interactions with randomly selected websites, when it sent the fake tip.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
According to Anthropic's account, as relayed by police, the model was running a test that involved interacting with randomly selected websites when it reached the site and filed false information about an unsolved murder.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
Participants ranged in age from 18 to 80 and were randomly assigned to one of six groups that differed in the order in which the three seated arm positions were tested.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
The Flagg card was randomly inserted in a pack of Topps 2026 Chrome Basketball Update Series and placed on the market Aug. 6.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
They hopped about randomly for an instant before twitching with recognition of one another and arranging themselves into two even rows.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
