How to Use arbitrary in a Sentence

arbitrary

adjective
Definition of arbitrarynext
Synonyms for arbitrarynext
  • An arbitrary number has been assigned to each district.
  • Although arbitrary arrests are illegal, they continue to occur in many parts of the country.
  • I don't know why I chose that one; it was a completely arbitrary decision.
  • So much of the design here seems arbitrary, an attempt to deflect from the fact that there’s just not actually all that much going on.
    — Eva Hagberg, Curbed, 26 Oct. 2021
  • All this cross-country zigzagging, which might have once felt arbitrary and rootless, has come to seem ever more purposeful and even political with time.
    — Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2024
  • Its rolling sound off the tongue? Ascribing arbitrary but absolute value to words and letters came to me naturally.
    — Anna Shechtman, The New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2021
  • He has been accused by human rights groups of involvement in torture and arbitrary detentions in the UAE.
    — NBC News, 25 Nov. 2021
  • He has been accused by human-rights groups of involvement in torture and arbitrary detentions in the UAE.
    — Arkansas Online, 26 Nov. 2021
  • Every year of the 1970s another state would disappoint us as the arbitrary timeline placed by congress inched closer.
    — Lisa Ann Walter, Glamour, 10 Oct. 2024
  • Some who did not suffer physical abuse were victimized by arbitrary detentions or opaque criminal proceedings, the group reported.
    — Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2021
  • Roberts suggested the fetal viability line was arbitrary and need not be considered part of Roe's essential holding.
    — Joan Biskupic, CNN, 2 Dec. 2021
  • The title, like so much else in the book, seems arbitrary.
    — Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Of course, your choice doesn’t have to be so arbitrary.
    — Alisha McDarris, Popular Science, 13 Jan. 2020
  • And that arbitrary bit of division isn’t the end of it.
    — Andrew Van Dam, Washington Post, 11 Aug. 2023
  • Because the shooting was arbitrary and up and down the street.
    — Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 16 May 2023
  • But the way in which many of them use these numbers is arbitrary.
    — Kaitlyn Tiffany, The Atlantic, 17 Jan. 2023
  • The record, whether carved in stone or bits of data, is arbitrary in the extreme.
    — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 20 Aug. 2019
  • Here's what else gives me pause: The meal plan is arbitrary: Just look at the portion sizes.
    — Jaclyn London, Ms, Rd, Cdn, Good Housekeeping, 11 Dec. 2018
  • The $15 charge was set, not for what people could pay, but for the need to raise the arbitrary $1 billion goal.
    — Lucius Riccio, New York Daily News, 9 June 2024
  • And that method is both somewhat arbitrary and hard to scale up.
    — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 8 Feb. 2022
  • That was the way to get through grief: make each moment hard with arbitrary want, then hop on them like rocks to get across the day.
    — Kate Osana Simonian, chicagotribune.com, 10 June 2017
  • To critics, the list is arbitrary, vague and amounts to picking winners and losers.
    — Tory Newmyer, Washington Post, 9 Mar. 2018
  • Each of the solid rounds is 82 tons, which is not an arbitrary number.
    — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 1 July 2022
  • The heavy-handed and arbitrary way in which it was done in Shanghai backfired.
    — Robert Mahoney, CNN, 26 Apr. 2022
  • But this is a highly arbitrary process, and marginalized people can slip through the cracks.
    — Alvin Chang, Vox, 26 July 2018
  • The athletes call that arbitrary punishment for having dared to walk away from the team.
    — Vivienne Walt, Time, 8 July 2021
  • Key factors like what tree to plant, when to plant it, and where are not arbitrary decisions.
    — Dan Lambe, Treehugger, 13 Apr. 2023
  • This is a standard practice, but just to hold this arbitrary amount of money?
    — Nick Sullivan, The Arizona Republic, 10 Apr. 2024
  • The judge is abusing the arbitrary and capricious standard.
    — Noah Feldman Bloomberg Opinion (tns), Star Tribune, 28 Jan. 2021
  • My son has a set biorhythm, and no arbitrary daylight saving law is going to shift it.
    — Rachel Meyer, chicagotribune.com, 22 Nov. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'arbitrary.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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