Standard Lemma guide

arbitrarily

adv · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Mid-Atlantic, US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: AA1 R B IH0 T R EH2 R AH0 L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

In an arbitrary manner.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The winner was chosen arbitrarily.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: unarbitrarily

2

adv

Meaning 2

To an arbitrary degree.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • an arbitrarily large number

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adverb

Meaning 3

in a random manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the houses were randomly scattered
  • bullets were fired into the crowd at random

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: randomly, indiscriminately, haphazardly, willy-nilly, at random, every which way

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin arbitrāriusder. Middle English arbitrarie English arbitrary Middle English -ly English -ly English arbitrarily From arbitrary + -ly.

Across languages

Translations

25 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: arbitràriament — in an arbitrary manner
  • Chinese Mandarin: 任意地 (rènyì de) — in an arbitrary manner
  • Czech: libovolně — in an arbitrary manner
  • Danish: arbitrært — in an arbitrary manner
  • Danish: vilkårligt — in an arbitrary manner
  • Finnish: mielivaltaisesti — in an arbitrary manner
  • French: arbitrairement — in an arbitrary manner
  • Galician: arbitrariamente — in an arbitrary manner
  • German: beliebig — in an arbitrary manner
  • Greek: αυθαίρετα (afthaíreta) — in an arbitrary manner
  • Italian: arbitrariamente — in an arbitrary manner
  • Japanese: 任意に (nin'i ni) — in an arbitrary manner
  • Polish: arbitralnie — in an arbitrary manner
  • Portuguese: arbitrariamente — in an arbitrary manner
  • Romanian: arbitrar — in an arbitrary manner
  • Romanian: arbitraricește — in an arbitrary manner
  • Romanian: în mod arbitrar — in an arbitrary manner
  • Russian: произво́льно (proizvólʹno) — in an arbitrary manner
  • Spanish: arbitrariamente — in an arbitrary manner
  • Spanish: a dedo — in an arbitrary manner
  • Swedish: godtyckligt — in an arbitrary manner
  • Danish: vilkårlig — to an arbitrary degree
  • Danish: arbitrært — to an arbitrary degree
  • Finnish: mielivaltaisen — to an arbitrary degree
  • German: beliebig — to an arbitrary degree