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View synonyms for arbitrarily

arbitrarily

[ ahr-bi-trair-uh-lee ]

adverb

  1. based on the judgment or will of an individual:

    The Fourth Amendment protects my right to not be arbitrarily searched.

  2. without an apparent reason or pattern; randomly; capriciously:

    There is no need to stop living life to its fullest simply because we have reached some arbitrarily set age for what broader society calls “retirement.”



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Other Words From

  • non·ar·bi·trar·i·ly adverb
  • un·ar·bi·trar·i·ly adverb

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Word History and Origins

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Example Sentences

Many of the others were arbitrarily sentenced under similar charges of “acting” or “conspiring” against national security.

In reality, the Iraqi borders had been arbitrarily drawn and disregarded 2,000 years of tribal, sectarian, and nomadic occupation.

In this position, they would arbitrarily hit us on the back and head.

If the IRS can target and discriminate against one group of Americans, it can arbitrarily do it to anyone.

Yet the current debate is arbitrarily restricted to the chief public component of the American retirement system, Social Security.

To determine them by a type would be as sure a way of missing the Kind, as if we were to select a set of characters arbitrarily.

I could not drop these words arbitrarily, and yet, if they were excluded, everything would become clear.

Okie arbitrarily judged the gold piece to be worth ten dollars.

He arbitrarily rejected all that had been done before his time.

The mob at last attacked the Bastille, a formidable fortress where state-prisoners were arbitrarily confined.

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arbitramentarbitrariness