Sample Sentences for
arbitrary
(editor-reviewed)

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    After the meal, the zugangi were lined up again in what seemed to Hannah to be a totally arbitrary order, orchestrated by the same three-fingered woman.  (source)
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    Having an advocate on the inside—someone who had gotten to know me and understood my story on a personal level—had obviously helped. It made me think deeply about the way privilege and preference work in the world, and how many kids who didn't have "luck" like mine in this instance would find themselves forever outside the ring of power and prestige. So many opportunities in this country are apportioned in this arbitrary and miserly way, distributed to those who already have the benefit of a privileged legacy.  (source)
    arbitrary = unfair (based on chance)
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    The trickles of money he sent back were not premeditated like those sent by his other friends, calculated from what he needed to survive; these were arbitrary sums that often left him broke and borrowing until the next payday.  (source)
    arbitrary = based on impulse
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    And yet she's firmly persuaded that I'm an arbitrary overbearing bossing kind of person.  (source)
    arbitrary = inclined to make decisions based on chance or impulse
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    It seemed unnecessarily cruel to make an old man wear a cap sideways like that and arbitrarily re-order the way in which age chose to hang from his chin.  (source)
    arbitrarily = in a manner based on chance or impulse
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    The Court prohibited jurors from hearing "victim impact" statements because they were too inflammatory and introduced arbitrariness into the capital sentencing process.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-ness" converts an adjective to a noun that means the quality of. This is the same pattern you see in words like darkness, kindness, and coolness.
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    "That's a preposterous, high-handed, arbitrary way of—"  (source)
    arbitrary = based on chance or impulse
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    I arbitrarily picked eight hours for the test duration, so I was trapped in the rover until then.†  (source)
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    Whereas Fever had obscure conditions, and gave him that delightful labor of the imagination which is not mere arbitrariness, but the exercise of disciplined power—combining and constructing with the clearest eye for probabilities and the fullest obedience to knowledge; and then, in yet more energetic alliance with impartial Nature, standing aloof to invent tests by which to try its own work.†  (source)
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    What do you think, that I make up arbitrary rules?  (source)
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    Few people attended these tests, and the targets and other parameters were arbitrarily selected.†  (source)
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    She said there was comfort to be found in the permanence of mathematical truths, in the lack of arbitrariness and the absence of ambiguity.†  (source)
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    If we start being arbitrary it'll just be a shambles:  (source)
    arbitrary = doing things based on chance or impulse
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