random

«random» in Mova's school dictionary: happening or chosen with no plan, pattern or reason, so… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (random; more random, most random); noun (at random)

meaning for a pupil

1) Random means happening or chosen with no plan, pattern or reason, so you cannot guess it beforehand. tree →

2) Random (informal) means strange, unexpected or not connected to what is going on. tree →

3) A random person or thing is just any one, not a special or known one. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths, random choice is important for probability: picking a card «at random» means every card has the same chance. In science, samples are chosen at random to make a test fair. In everyday talk, «that was so random» means it was odd. Phrases: «at random», «random number», «a random person».

examples

• The teacher picked a name at random from the hat. tree →
• Roll the dice to get a random number from one to six. tree →
• The scientist chose ten random leaves to measure. tree →
• He said something totally random about penguins. tree →
• A random man on the bus asked me the time. tree →
• The colours on the quilt were in a random order. tree →
• If you pick a random marble, what is the chance it is red? tree →
• Don't click on random links online. tree →
• The pictures I have here given have not been chosen at random, but follow in their proper order, just as they were described to me. tree →

note

Adjective, no plural. «At random» is a common phrase meaning «with no choice or plan». In maths, «random» does not mean «weird»; it means each outcome has a fair chance. Safety: do not open random messages or links from people you do not know.

In the corpora

• They are not random hard words; most are words children need in their own writing all the time.
• A rating is not random; it tells you what is inside.
• A long password made of several random words is much harder to guess and easy to remember.
• Age ratings such as PEGI and ESRB add a note when a game has in-game purchases with random items.
• Little children can buy things by pressing buttons at random on a device with a saved card.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «random» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.